Bella Solorzano

W4-Challenge 8
The last challenge!! Well not the final but the last of this class :(
I went to a baseball game last week and brought my reusable bottle (as per usual). I went to ask if someone could refill my bottle and all the vendors refused. They claimed it was an issue w/ "cross-contamination" while not wearing a mask nor changing gloves between customers. I was upset and asked if there was a bottle refill station to which they said no but I was welcome to use the bathroom sink water. This frustrated me b/c here I was trying to make a difference and the baseball stadium wasn't allowing it. I wrote them and email regarding maybe installing bottle refill stations w/ the idea that they could sell reusable bottles and get money that way. However, this whole thing got me thinking about COVID's effect on the sustainability but more on the use/need for single-use items. I tried going to a few coffee shops in the following days only to be met w/ a similar response. Coffee Bean said they couldn't but they gave me a big cup of water w/ no lid (no lid I guess is them limiting waste so I'll give them some props). A Starbucks drive-through employee said he wasn't supposed to but that since it was really hot outside they would. A different Starbucks said no but that I could have a cup (similar to Coffee Bean). Just interesting to think how the pandemic set us forward but also behind in our practices. Hope everyone has a great rest of their summer!!!!

W4-Challenge 7
It's all about consumption this week! I decided to track my purchases and shop local. I really enjoyed the tracker as it made me really consider my consumption practices. A lot of my purchases were out of convenience and felt small to me however, as I look over them some (if not most) are unneeded. To be fair this week was weird for me since I've been on vacation so I will definitely continue this tracker to be able to better gauge my habits. A lot of my spending was on food (how typical). Convenient food items that I would grab b/c I was hungry made up a lot of wasteful spending. The item I feel the worst about is a moon cake I got from Ranch 99. It was $9, made mostly of sugar and I didn't even finish eating it. If I had snacks already in my car I wouldn't have bought it. As I tracked other similar purchases I realized that meal-prepping would be a great thing for me to start implementing. I could easily pack chips w/ dip or a sandwich for on-the-go snacking that is local and has less packaging waste. I do support eating at fun local restaurants and bakeries just when the time is right and not out of convenience. 

W3-Challenge 6

This was the week for me! It started on Thursday after our class. I forced my partner to go to the farmers market with me after class was over but... we had to bike, not take public transportation down to the ferry building like usual. They were excited b/c usually I am all for walking (my partner isn't a huge fan) but they prefer biking as they are a bike mech and just in general love biking. It was fun and nice for us to spend time doing something together. My whole week until today (7 days) was car free!!! I am used to this lifestyle b/c I don't have a car but I also sometimes take Lyft, for convenience, a good few times a week. Spending a week using only "muscle-powered" vehicles was HARD! It really reduced the places I was willing to go. As my range shrunk I found myself integrating into my immediate community more. It’s been nice forming a relationship with Tim who works in the corner store. I actually became so close w/ him that he’s going to order my favorite flavor of It’s It (cappuccino) instead of just the vanilla and mint. Let me just say that’s a big win and I haven’t shut up about it. It’s nice to have that feeling of community as I wasn’t feeling this last week. This challenge made me consider how communities could be built better so that walking/biking are the best/most convenient options.

W3-Challenge 5
For my challenge this week I decided I would offer to help 2 different people per day. WOW! It is kinda sad how surprised people were when I offered. My first day I went grocery shopping and offered to help an older lady w/ putting her groceries in her car. She was so appreciative and even tried to tip me hahaha I told her to pass on the kindness instead. I offered another time outside of a Target and the person was weird about it. Maybe they thought I was going to steal their stuff idk. Day 2 I was visiting my parents and my dad was talking about wanting to replant one of his plants. I said "lets do it rn!" he had been putting it off so this forced him to do it. Overall, this challenge really made me aware of peoples distrust of others but it also showed me that being nice is never the wrong way to be. I've been feeling like the places I live (Portland/San Francisco) are overcrowded and lack that community feel... this kinda confirmed that. I guess it was a eco challenge filled w/ self-reflection. THANKS

W2-Challenge 4
Ok so this week was all about water. I decided to take on the limiting single use plastics and also only use a reusable water bottle. To be honest I already live my life these ways and the first few days of the challenge I didn't feel as satisfied as I had w/ other past challenges. I already can't leave the house w/o my water bottle and got a lot of other people hooked on reusing. I'm that person in line at Starbucks asking for things to be made in my bottle. Then I went over to my friends apt... he had this pile of single use items (like any typical streamer). I decided to gift him one of the many reusable bottles I have (being honest I don't really need as many as I had. I can only use a max of 2 at a time). Over the course of just 2 days this change had already cut his "waste pile" in half! He even commented that since he had switched to just drinking water he even felt healthier! Accomplishing this made me feel powerful but also empowered my friend to take ownership of his waste and save money!

W2-Challenge 3
Oh no haha! One zero-waste meal per day. To be completely honest I was very excited to do this weeks challenge. It was fun to think about what I would be cooking that would allow for a zero-waste outcome. Thinking ahead of time made me more conscious of what I was putting into my body. I love cooking and let me just say I think I did a great job. The smartest thing I did was think about how to use ingredients across meals. I knew rice would be the base of my meal (I eat A LOT of rice so this was an easy choice). So with a slight idea of what I would like to eat I headed to the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. Let me just give a quick S.O. to how gorgeous this market is! It's really evolved since 3 years ago. First I bought a nice piece of salmon... wrapped in a wax paper wrapping unfortunately. I picked up a half dozen local chicken eggs, it's nice to shop at famers markets b/c I can get portions that are more manageable. I also got some asparagus (oh god going to force myself to eat the whole stalk), and mushrooms. I am going to go home and prep a teriyaki sauce (of ingredients I already owned) for the things I bought. On the way home I stopped at Hmart to grab a few more items (bananas, oats, rice milk). Where I am currently living is going to be really helpful for this challenge b/c they compost! That is going to help limit my food waste (banana peels)!

D1: BREAKFAST: Overnight brown sugar oats. LUNCH: Soy sauce mushrooms and a banana DINNER: Teriyaki salmon over rice w/ asparagus   D2: BREAKFAST: Banana and a soft boiled egg LUNCH: Teriyaki salmon over rice w/ mushrooms DINNER: Teriyaki asparagus over rice w/ soft boiled egg D3: BREAKFAST: Banana, salted salmon over rice w/ mushrooms LUNCH: Overnight oats DINNER: soft boiled egg w/ rice  D4: BREAKFAST: Overnight brown sugar oats. LUNCH: Soft boiled egg over teriyaki rice DINNER: Salted salmon over rice w/ asparagus/mushroom mixture.

My only waste was the rice milk container, a rubber band to hold the asparagus, a few paper towels and the wax paper salmon wrap! Shopping at the famers market really limited my packaging waste and thinking how ingredients could be used in multiple ways helped to save money on groceries!

For my W2 eco challenge I decided to challenge myself (and my sister) to camp in a more eco-conscious way. I go backpacking all the time and have fallen into a bad habit of purchasing packaged freeze-dried food to take with me. It started about 6 years ago when I was gifted bulk package of Mountain House food to review... one bite of breakfast skillet at 12,000 feet and I was hooked. Ever since then I have purchased similar meals and advocated for others to purchase. This is a big issue and one that I have personally caused to be worse. So this time when my sister and I were planning our trip to Pinnacles NP I decided it was time to make a change. Instead of purchasing these packaged foods (~$12 per meal) we were going to make our own. I borrowed a dehydrator from my moms friend and we were ready. It was a fun bonding experience as we decided what to make and both of us felt so proud as we sat at our campsite and ate our first dinner. I have a real emotional connection to food and knowing that we shopped local and prepared the food ourselves made it taste that much better. It didn't hurt that it was half the price (~$5 per meal)! I highly recommend and will be making more of this for my July trip.

For my first eco challenge I chose the "explore nature in my area" action. I decided that this would be the best choice for week one to help familiarize myself with the space I'm in. I am spending some of the summer working in California so that is where i'll be for this class. I was excited to spend time in Pinnacles NP. I was really enjoying spending time alone just listening to the sounds of nature until a group of hikers passed me and one of them was playing music from a speaker. I listened as the sound pollution faded away and realized I had been thrown off. It was interesting to reflect on how something that can't even be held was able to interrupt and take over the surroundings. Of course this wasn't my only interaction with how humans negatively impact our natural settings but I found myself continuously going back to that group and thinking about how large of an impact a Drake song had on me. I just thought it was so interesting because those people probably thought they were doing nothing wrong and I'm not saying they were. I guess I learned about unintended consequences that day.

The reason I decided to take this class is to deepen my understanding of what sustainability is but also to return to the area of study I originally started my college journey with (years and years ago haha)! I plan to put the knowledge from this course into action and share it with my family so we can all live better and be more aware about the effects we have on this world.