Drasti Patel

This week my challenge was to either start a recycling program at my workplace or school, or If a recycling program existed, I advocate for ways to improve and expand it. We have a sound system at my temple to dispose of the garbage. However, we did not have a strategy to recycle aluminum cans. At one of our temple events, I noticed that many aluminum soda cans were being thrown in the regular garbage. I asked the kitchen team who organizes the food and takes care of the miscellaneous duties what they did with the cans afterward. The answer I got was nothing; they throw out the can in the standard garbage. They did not have a system in place to recycle. That night, I took all the cans at home and threw them in my recycling bin to be recycled. However, I believe that thee had to be a system where we can easily recycle stuff. The first step is to learn and teach everyone what can be recycled and what can't. Then to get everyone committed to recycling, announce the weekly assemblies and remind people to recycle and throw garbage in the appropriate bins. Then choose to have recycling bins available and separate from the regular waste so people can throw away things in the designated bins.       

This week's challenge was to buy only what I needed. I started this challenge on Monday of this week, and even though today it's just Wednesday, it was tough not to buy things. I am used to buying something every day, whether it's food or drink or any irrelevant products or paying for subscriptions. Therefore, this week was a challenge, but I am glad I did it. So far, the only thing I bought in these two days was a cup of coffee from a street cart on campus called 'Olé Latte Coffee.' Usually, I buy my coffee from Starbucks. However, this week I decided to support the local and small businesses on campus.

Furthermore, I went ahead and did some research on The Story of Stuff Project, and there were a lot of exciting and innovative ways people have been reducing the things that they buy or have. For example, Blueland is making cleaning products using Eco-ingredients and packaging to reduce plastic waste in households. Last week I also watched a documentary on Netflix called, The Minimalists: Less is Now. The purpose of the documentary was to inform the audience of the notion that we are slaves to capitalism and address our addiction to consuming. In addition, it also explains that having lots of stuff isn't going to make us happy or improve our lives. It may even hinder us from true happiness.  

Link to The Story of Stuff Project: https://www.storyofstuff.org/
Link to the Blueland video: https://www.storyofstuff.org/movies/designing-plastic-out/   
Link to the movie: https://www.netflix.com/watch/81074662?trackId=14751296&tctx=15%2C0%2C238eb2c8-15c9-48df-9901-4b384cba6ec4-441548856%2C067c4458-39ec-4a70-8cc8-a1a0ee1ea1ee_7723190X55XX1652895585165%2C067c4458-39ec-4a70-8cc8-a1a0ee1ea1ee_ROOT%2C%2C%2C 

For this week's transportation, I decided to carpool with others for at least 20miles to send fewer carbon emissions into the atmosphere. I carpooled with my sister in the morning for the gym. She and I go to the same gym but at different times. However this week we decided to go together. At first, it was hard because I was waking up at 4:45 am; however, car rides to the gym were fun. We would have long conversations and chat about our lives. Since both of us are very busy, we hardly get the time to interact but carpooling allowed us to catch up and spend quality time together. It's so funny and interesting how people who live in the same household don't get the time to interact anymore because of their busy schedules. It's like we have lost the house touch.

I also decided to gather some numbers and information on the impact of carbon dioxide on the climate. According to the USGS, the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that in 2019, the United States emitted 5,130 million metric tons of energy-related carbon dioxide, while the global emissions of energy-related carbon dioxide totaled 33,621.5 million metric tons. Furthermore, These greenhouse gas emissions have increased the greenhouse effect and caused the earth's surface temperature to rise. Burning fossil fuels changes the climate more than any other human activity. Carbon dioxide: Human activities release over 30 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year. Even though I carpooled for four days, I wish to continue so that I can do my part to reduce my carbon footprint and connect with others.   

This week's eco-challenge involved giving back to the community where I belong. I decided to offer help to two people this week. However, I was only able to help one person. I work at SHAC on the PSU campus as a student clinical assistant. My role involves rooming patients and taking their vitals (blood pressure, weight, height, temperature, etc.). Since the Spring term started, we have been pretty busy as we switched to seeing more patients in person at the clinic. Therefore, we all have been pretty busy. We also perform rapid COVID tests for students at SHAC as well. On Monday this week, I saw that the medical assistant at the clinic was rooming patients and performing the COVID tests. Therefore, I offered to help her room her patients while she was busy running the tests. She was very grateful and felt so relaxed knowing that I was there to help her. It made me feel good; I also felt a sense of unity. Even though I could only offer help to one person, I felt great about my role in the SHAC community.   

This week was a little tricky, saying nothing that is made out of water. This is because everything we use is made out of water. However, though it was hard, it made it very easy to understand the importance of water in my life. Water is not just used for drinking, cooking, our laundry, but water is used to make everything that we see or use. Therefore, water is crucial. Some of the things that I tried to implement in my life this week regarding water were taking small showers, buying less plastic, and using less plastic. I remember during the week when I got myself a cup of coffee (I usually get a cup every day in the afternoon) and felt happy that I was using a cardboard cup and not a plastic cup. However, because of the readings this week, I remembered that water must have been used to make the cup that I am using as well. It also got me thinking about all the other cups I used and threw away. That moment was an eye-opening moment, and I realized that there is so much more to be done, many more changes that I need to make in my life to make sure that I am doing everything that I can to preserve this planet.

I am thrilled I decided to do this challenge for the week. I had so much fun doing it and felt good doing it. For the last three days, I have tried making at least two meals using organic food using fruits and vegetables. I usually listen to music or watch something while cooking, but this time when I was making my meals, I decided to focus entirely on making the food. It was a great experience because I was paying attention to each ingredient, the color of the food, and how it tasted. I was paying attention to what I was doing and putting it into my body. I used all the ingredients in my fridge and made it creative and mine. Eating the healthy organic food that I made gave me a lot of satisfaction.    

This week's challenge was to practice gratitude for the earth. I tried to sit down for 5-10 minutes each day and think about all the things I was grateful for. I have attached a picture of my backyard, where I set down every day and practice gratitude. While doing this exercise, I thought about how grateful I was for the clean air I breathe every day, clean water, and even the sun's light. I felt thankful for the tress I saw outside my house, in my neighborhood, and around the campus. I was grateful for the beauty of nature and the people around me. I am so lucky to have a house, food to eat, and a family I can count on. This exercise helped me appreciate little things in my life and helped me understand that I shouldn't take things and people in my life for granted.   

I watched a documentary on ways that I can reduce my carbon footprint and be more sustainable. The documentary focused on a very passionate family about reducing their carbon footprint. They decided to no longer fly. Instead, they grew their vegetables and bought as local food as possible. They also use the bike instead of a car.

Furthermore, the family encourages other people around them to find different ways to carbon neutral lifestyle. The documentary made me question my carbon footprint and the impact that I am making on the ecosystem. After watching this documentary, I came up with many ideas that I could implement to make sure that I can reduce my carbon footprint. Some ways of doing that include buying fewer products from Amazon and buying from a local store. Additionally, taking a paper bag or a cloth bag with me when I go grocery shopping to reduce the use of plastic bags, cook food at home instead of ordering food from outside, properly recycle my trash, not be lazy, etc.