Sharen van boeckel

For the last challenge, I decided to make my own oat milk. Store-bought oat milk contains a lot of perseverative and added sugars which take away from the nutrition value of the oats. Thickeners and emulsifiers are also added to premade oat milk which can have a negative impact on digestive health. So I found a recipe online that was easy to follow and made my own at home. It's a more affordable option as one cup of rolled oats is mixed with six cups of water, and buying plain oats in bulk is cheaper than pre-packaged drinks. You are also in more control of what is going into your body, and flavoring options when making it at home. I’ve attached the recipe link, as well as a link on what to do with the leftover pulk instead of tossing it. 

https://thebananadiaries.com/how-to-make-oat-milk-non-slimy/ (recipe)

https://sarahbassett.co/oat-pulp-ideas/ (oat pulk ideas)

The initiative petition 3 or IP3 is filed for Oregon general election in 2024 and will help end animal abuse in the state of Oregon. It will remove exemptions that were not protecting animals from abuse, neglect, and sexual assault. This would impact animals on farms, in labs, in exhibitions, and in the wild. This does not impact ranchers' ability to raise bovine livestock, the selling of meats and fur, or other animal products; this petition just ensures that those responsible for the care of the animals are being held accountable for any inhumane treatment of the animals. The main difference between IP13 and IP3 is that IP13 was in the 2022 elections and the IP3 is for 2024, it includes some more improvements and that anyone who was convicted of animal cruelty is prohibited from possessing an animal for 5-15 years. The petition page has multiple ways to help whether you sign, volunteer, or donate. Animals don’t have a voice to speak for themselves and many times in the meat industry, particularly animals face an immense amount of animal cruelty from the ranges included in the petition, it's important we help stop animal cruelty and start holding those accountable for it. I've included the link to check it out.

https://www.yesonip3.org/about 

In our house we recently renovated all the water piping in our house, they were quite old and had burst and when looking into all the connecting pipes they were filled with rust and falling apart. My parents installed PEX piping all throughout our house, this was to help reduce the amount of rust in our pipes. When compared to other piping materials PEX is one of the more sustainable choices. We color-coordinated, red for hot water and blue for cold water. Since it doesn't build up rust the water pressure in our house has improved reducing the need to use the taps longer than needed. We were also able to install low-flow showered heads into the bathrooms. These changes have been able to not only save the amount of water being used but also helped with our cost on the water bill since less water is being used in total. Now our water works a lot better and it's safer since it isn't full of rust, especially for giving our pets water from the tap. I was able to find an article about PEX pipes that I found interesting that it discussed the impacts, such as lower environmental impact during manufacturing and that less energy is required for the making. 

https://gbdmagazine.com/pex-pipes-sustainable/#:~:text=All%20these%20reports%20came%20to,%2C%20transportation%2C%20and%20disposal%20burdens. 

This is something that I’ve always been interested in; I actually made a little flyer about common items that people don't realize are recyclable and met to talk with someone from the Ridwell company. I think many people don’t realize what actually can be recycled and the amount of recyclable products that end up in our landfills. With this little flyer its easier to understand that the numbers on containers and items have a certain meaning for the recycling companies and have helped me to be able to recycle more items than before because I didn’t know they could be recycled. I also push my friends to recycle more especially when we all hangout and explain to them some common items like seran wrap can be recycled instead of being tossed. 

After using the carbon footprint website showed that it would take 5.5 worlds to maintain the way I live. I live with my parents, so I can't change the house we live in, and working the night shift 17 miles away from home, I feel unsafe taking public transportation. However, a change we can make is to reduce the amount of meat we eat. I’ve put a large emphasis on how much beef impacts our environment. With the rise in prices, it's an excellent time to reduce the number of meat products we buy. Swapping out beef and chicken for items like beans or tofu is a simple way to add variety to our diet and lower meat consumption; I also encourage my family to drink alternative kinds of milk such as oat milk, and how harmful and damaging the milk industry is on animals and our own health. Our family also grows some of our own herbs such as parsley and rosemary, and small amounts of some of our most used vegetables like lettuce, cherry tomatoes, and strawberries that keep coming back on their own each year. 

I recently got a small, easy-carry reusable grocery bag that I keep in my car. I think the primary source of plastic waste in our house is from forgetting to bring reusable bags to the store, so having a small convenient bag made a difference. This bag was handy for a trip I took to Seattle. The bag folds itself into a smaller bag to be stored which makes it very accessible. Instead of having to use plastic or paper bags in stores, I was able to use the bag I had; I also made sure to as for sippy style lids when ordering drinks to go that way. No straws were needed. I was happily surprised that when I went to get some food, the bowls were composable with wooden sporks given out.  Hopefully the photo uploads :) 

I talked to my sister about small changes that can be made to help be more sustainable; beeswax wraps are an excellent substitute for saran wrap, replacing plastic straws with reusable ones, and using reusable ziplock bags instead of plastic. In our conversation, she told me how to grow my own herb garden to be able to produce our own instead of depending on stores for everything, I also was able to show her the video about zero waste from class since she and her husband produce a lot of waste. I told her about using or making her own goods, and buying bulk with reusable containers to save money. I also discussed with my mom how we could swap items for more sustainable things, like using reusable grocery bags and glass containers for food or snack storage instead of plastic Tupperware. I also encourage her when we shop to buy fewer meat products and to buy fewer items that we don't necessarily need to reduce our waste. 

I definitely have fallen prey to the fast fashion market. With an upcoming trip I have planned, social media put pressure to buy a whole new wardrobe for my trip; however, I have refrained from buying new clothes since I went thrown my closet and found things I had forgotten about. I ended up donating closes from going through my clothes. I also went on a trip to Seattle, and we made sure to pack snacks and food that way; we could focus on site seeing and not buying unnecessary things.