The Ripple Effect

A common misconception about going green is that one person can’t change anything. I felt this same way when I started to become environmentally conscious. I felt that if it is only me doing this, what difference can I make in my community?

Recently, a friend of mine who is in Student Government proposed that the school change all of the signs on the recycling bins from “MIXED PAPER ONLY” to “MIXED RECYCLABLES”. At my school, we have single stream recycling but before these signs were changed only few people knew that. This one person, my friend, saw something that needed to be done to help the environment, and it rippled throughout my entire school.

A few days ago, I bought some bamboo toothbrushes. I thought I was going to be the only one using them, but in the pack there were seven more. What was I going to do with all of these toothbrushes? My sisters and mom threw away their old toothbrushes and started to use these ones. I gave two to my boyfriend, and now him and his mom use them. I have two left over for when it is time to switch my current one out.

These are examples of the ripple effect. One person’s good deed for the environment can ripple to their friends, family, and peers. This good deed can only ripple if the individual acts as an activist. To get the signs changed on the recycling bins, my friend first had to ask important people and talk in front of crowds to gain support for her cause. To get my family to use the toothbrushes, I had to convince them of its’ importance like an advertisement.

Environmentalism ripples from those who are passionate. Activists are not afraid to ask questions to authority figures and challenge their communities.

The ripple effect is real and it is effective in spreading important environmental practices.

PLEASE READ! I have been busy!

*This post will be deleted*

Hi everyone!

Wow, I haven’t posted in over a month! With school starting and applying to college, things have been extremely stressful and busy for me.

I still plan on keeping this blog. I hope you all stay patient with me as I do have a list of content I hope to publish but just haven’t gotten around to doing so.

I have a lot of exciting things coming so stay tuned! I can’t wait for you guys to see 🙂

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“It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” -Eleanor Roosevelt 

Update…

Hi everyone!

I have decided to take my blog a bit more seriously and will start re-vamping it! Please bear with me while my blog is under construction! I have a lot of new things coming- a wider scope of topics to post about (including politics!) and a much neater and easier to navigate website.

Thanks!

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“It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” -Eleanor Roosevelt

Garbage Doesn’t Disappear

Hi everyone!

I hope you are all enjoying your Monday. I am going to talk about an aspect of the zero waste movement that *should* concern everyone, zero waste or not.

Everyone produces garbage. Although this movement tries to mitigate that garbage by as much as we possibly can, the reality is that everyone else in the world isn’t living like this. Everyone is producing some sort of garbage, whether it gets recycled into something new, composted into soil, or reused, we will stop using all the products we use at some point, and where it goes is up to us.

Believe it or not, there are people in this world who don’t really think about where their garbage is going. Whether they’re too lazy to recycle, can’t afford a recycling bin, or don’t know enough about their town’s recycling system to begin to even think of it,  it isn’t as easy as we think for many people to discard their trash in a responsible manner.

A little over a month ago, I went on my friend’s boat for the 4th of July. We anchored next to an island that is a nature preserve, and the biggest island in my area. We swam to the island and walked around. Walking around, I noticed that although from afar the island looks untouched, that people have been here, or at least, people’s trash has been here. Beer cans, bits and pieces of plastic, and scraps littered the shore of the island. I couldn’t finish looking around the beautiful island because I got bitten up so badly by horseflies, but if I were to, I can only imagine how much more trash I would find. It was truly heart breaking because this island is absolutely beautiful (photo below).

A few hours later, on our way back to the marina, we saw a balloon floating on the water. It was a 3rd birthday balloon for a boy. Although I protested to go get it, we were going too fast and no one cared enough to.

Now, I am on vacation in Florida. Yesterday we spent the day on the beach, and my dad went swimming for a while. When he got back, he told me that he saw a floatie lingering in the water, and he tried to get it and bring it back to shore, but it was too far away. He said it would probably either come back in with the tide or float out to sea. Devastated, I looked at the water and saw the pink floatie hundreds of feet away, with no chance of anyone swimming to it unless they were on a boat.

Landfill trash is a problem. It can leach through the soil, contaminate food and water, and also gives off methane, a greenhouse gas. Ocean trash is a different problem. Ocean trash floats for years and years, fish and birds and other marine animals eat this plastic, and these animals subsequently die due to lack of nutrients. They also can get tangled in this plastic and die from it. This plastic will end up in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, formed by a gyre in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, is an island of micropastics and bigger items.

This diagram is helpful in learning about the garbage patch, what it consists of, and where it comes from, along with other ocean gyres.

This disgusting plastic in the middle of the ocean is gross, big, and not going away for a very, very long time. What can we do about it?

Although we don’t think about it, individuals have an impact. We can recycle, use biodegradable plastics, and just not throw our trash into the ocean. There is an effort starting next year to clean up the Garbage Patch (yay!). You can read about it here.

I am not an expert on the Garbage Patch, so I will link some informational articles and videos below, but I thought it was important to make this post because it is something that affects every single one of us, and that all of us can make efforts to change.

Links:

• National Geographic, Great Pacific Garbage Patch
• Youtube, TEDxLecce, Plastic Paradise. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, Angela Sun
• TED, Seas of Plastic, Captain Charles Moore
• The Plastiki
• NOAA, The Great Pacific Garbage Patch Podcast

 

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“It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” -Eleanor Roosevelt.

Earth Overshoot Day

Hi everyone!

Today is Earth Overshoot Day. It is a neutral-sounding name for a rather grim day. Today is the day that us as human beings have used up all of our Earth’s resources for the year. From now until the end of the year, we are essentially in debt to our own mother Earth.

I found a post on WordPress containing a link to find my own ecological footprint. Who doesn’t love online quizzes? They’re like candy for the internet-obsessed.

My results weren’t as environmentally-friendly as I had expected. Although I am making a significant difference by being a vegetarian, my standard Kia Rio where I take to work, the library, the gym, and friends houses almost everyday has caused a looming darkness on my ecological footprint.

If everyone lived like me, we would need 2.7 earths. 

Pretty embarrassing to admit, but I will take it in stride. If anything, my disgusting ecological footprint has inspired me to make major lifestyle changes. Although I travel by plane very little (max one round trip/year), I can’t change the fact that my car isn’t very fuel efficient and that I live very far away from the places I frequent the most. Going vegan, turning off lights in rooms I’m not using, etc. can make significant changes although they can seem very little. I am, after all, a student, so I can’t help the type of house my family lives in or the size of it, or the fact that we use electricity.

Living comfortably in a developed nation makes it virtually impossible, but that doesn’t mean that every little effort can still count.

Let’s hope that next year, Earth Overshoot Day is much later than it was this year!

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“It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” -Eleanor Roosevelt. 

My Experience Being Vegetarian

Hi everyone!

Today’s post is going to be a bit more personal than past posts, I will be talking about my experience being a vegetarian, and my hopeful future to becoming vegan. For those of you who are thinking of becoming vegetarian, I hope you find this useful!

I became a vegetarian two years ago. I didn’t do it for the environmental reasons, or the animal cruelty reasons, but an obscure health reason. My philosophy was that becoming vegetarian would force me to watch what I was eating, which in turn would help me realize the other junk food I was eating and stop eating that too. So, I used my meat-free diet to lose weight, and it worked! I lost ten pounds in my first year being a vegetarian!

For me, going vegetarian was actually surprisingly easy. The first month or so, probably less, I struggled. I was tempted to eat meat again but I never gave in. I started cooking a lot of my own meals which helped a lot. Going out to restaurants today can sometimes be a challenge, but most restaurants do have a lot of great vegetarian options. I used to hate Indian food, but since I became a vegetarian it is my favorite (next to sushi), because it has the most food I can eat! I also buy a lot of frozen fake meats. Morning Star and Gardein are my favorite brands, they have a lot of products that taste exactly like the meat they are mimicking. They are also packed with protein, but the bad part is they are highly processed. I hope this summer to wane off of these and maybe eat them once or twice a week, as I transition to a more plant-based diet.

For me, becoming vegetarian was the best dietary choice I’ve ever made. It has made me a lot healthier of a person throughout, not just because of not eating meat but also because it has made me more aware of the other junk food I was eating as well. I always knew in the back of my mind it was probably better for the environment, and good for the animals (you know, supply and demand), but actually reading up on it, and how disgustingly addicted our world is to meat, has made me not have any desire at all to eat meat anytime soon. At this point, two years later, it is such a habit and a big part of my identity as a whole that I just don’t really have any desire to eat meat, because, well, I know I’m fine without it.

Wait, wait, so, do I still know what meat tastes like? Like, do I know what I’m missing out on. Sadly, yes. I have actually had a few slip ups in the past two years (none recently, thank god) where I have accidentally eaten meat. The most recent was when I ate a frittata that I didn’t know had ham in it until I was halfway done. When people ask questions like this, “do you even know what meat tastes like? Like, do you know what you’re missing out on?” I respond with this: of course I know what meat tastes like. I wasn’t born a vegetarian and I’m not allergic to meat. I know exactly what it feels like eating a nice oily, salty piece of bacon that my mom would make on Sunday mornings. My dad is an amazing chef, and I still vividly remember the mouth-watering skirt steak he used to make on the grill. My favorite meat to eat was proscuitto. I always tell people if I were to eat meat again, it would be only to have proscuitto. But I won’t. Although I know that these meats taste amazing, there are plenty of non-meat foods that taste amazing too. In my opinion, the ten seconds of deliciousness in my mouth while I chew isn’t worth the environmental and health consequences, along with the fact that the animal I am eating probably lived a miserable and abusive life.

So, what’s next for me? Going vegan has actually been a lot harder than I had anticipated. I am a lot more attached to having cream in my coffee than I thought. I also am a sucker for a good omelette (my favorite is with red pepper flakes, broccoli, onions, and cheddar cheese). My summer goal is to wane off of dairy, and hopefully a year from now, eggs. My diet is constantly changing, and that is the fun part of being a vegetarian! Finding new ideas and ways to meet my self-imposed restrictions makes every meal worthwhile.

Feel free to leave any comments asking me any questions you have about vegetarianism, I will be happy to answer!

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“It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” -Eleanor Roosevelt. 

 

 

The Latest…

Hi everyone!

I have been a bit MIA on this blog for the past week. I originally started this blog for a project for my AP Environmental Science class in school. Well, I presented my project, school is over, but the blog is still here. What am I to do? I really enjoyed writing in this blog throughout the short two weeks that I had used it for, and I’ve decided to keep it going over the summer, but a little differently.

I think I will change this blog so it isn’t only zero waste, but all environmental issues: climate change, pollution, etc. as well as tips, tricks, and personal experiences I have had to living a sustainable life. I hope those of you who follow me will enjoy these new types of post, and those who won’t, don’t worry- I will still be blogging about zero waste as well!

I will be posting twice a week from now on, on Wednesdays and Sundays. I hope some consistency will make this into more of a habit than it was before :).

Thank you for reading my blog and following me on this journey!

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“It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” -Eleanor Roosevelt. 

Reusable Water Bottles

I was stuck with what to write this post on, and then I realized that I haven’t yet written about the most simple aspect of going zero waste- Reusable water bottles.

I learned a few weeks ago that my high school, with almost 3,000 students, makes $200,000 a year on selling just $1 Poland Spring Water bottles. Some students buy multiple a day, even though there are water bottle refilling stations in every hallway in the school. I have a plethora of reusable water bottles at home, and the thought of using a plastic single-use water bottle hasn’t reached my mind in months. If I forget a water bottle at home, I probably will go the whole school day thirsty, not only because I don’t want to buy a single use water bottle, but also because I don’t bring the money to school, so I am literally unable to. I think this is the best way to stop using single use water bottles on a day to day basis, force yourself not to until you remember to bring a reusable water bottle.

I will give recomendations of water bottles that I use or have used in the past- what I liked about them, what I don’t like about them, and which is my favorite.

Camelbak

I purchased the Camelbak Eddy a little over a year ago in the color Charcoal. I know people who rave about these water bottles, but this one goes on the bottom of my list.

About six months into semi-daily use, the straw started to mold, and the water bottle would leak all over my car and backpack. Persistent washing, by hand and through the dishwasher, didn’t work either. After only six months, I had to throw it out. I considered their Lifetime Warranty program, but after reading into it, found out that it only applies to faulty products from purchase. I had to recycle it. Won’t be buying again!

 

S’well

The store I work at sells S’wells, and ever since our first shipment around Christmas time, it has been a best-seller. What I think attracts people to S’wells are the variety of beautiful designs, and the fact that its insulation keeps cold beverages cold for 24 hours and hot beverages hot for 12. I’ve had two S’well bottles over the course of three years (I lost the first one) and can honestly say that this is true. I used to make the mistake of putting hot tea in my S’well, expecting it to cool down enough to drink it within the next hour, but it wouldn’t get to a less-than scorching hot temperature for around five hours. My only problem with the S’well is that like many other reusable water bottles, it isn’t very compatible with lip glosses / lipsticks. The makeup sticks to the mouth of the bottle, which in turn makes it require more washes than other reusable bottles I have used.

Contigo

The Contigo water bottle is by far my favorite, and there are a few reasons why. First, it was cheaper than the other water bottles. The S’well costs $35, Camelbak was $15, and the Contigo was only $8! I bought it at the B&N Starbucks Cafe in Barnes and Noble, and since I am a Barnes and Noble member, I got a discount. But the price doesn’t reflect the quality of the product. The feature that I found useful that isn’t present in the others is the lock. To ensure it doesn’t leak, there is a lock on the side, which I find myself using a lot more often than I originally thought. After the constant leaking of the Camelbak, I found this extra security a blessing. Another aspect that I liked was the straw. The straw isn’t one that you just push into the holder, like the Camelbak, but you actually have to twist it to lock it. With my Camelbak, I found that whenever I had lemon water or ice water that the solids in the container would push the straw out of the holder, which also always happened when I was in the middle of driving, not ideal. Lastly, I really love the spout on the Contigo. With the Camelnbak, you have to bite down on the spout to get the water out, which was annoying and also wasn’t healthy for me because I have a jaw disorder called TMJ, where essentially the joints in my jaw get inflamed with too much chewing, a really annoying and painful problem that I can’t fix, but I can try to mitigate with less chewing, and this didn’t help it. I also found the shape of the Contigo is better shaped to fit mouths, which I enjoyed.

The Contigo water bottle has turned into my daily use water bottle. I am able to place lemons and ice in the water bottle without the straw popping out, can lock it to prevent it from spilling, and it is also cheap and 24 oz! That means I only have to drink 5 to reach a gallon of water a day! Woo!

I hope some of you who are looking for the right water bottle for them found this review helpful. I know I only included three, but where I live, these three brands are the most popular. If you decide to try these out, or other reusable water bottles out, and don’t like it, you can give it to a friend or recycle them! All of these water bottles are recyclable.

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“It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” -Eleanor Roosevelt. 

 

From Paris, With Love (And Hope).

We all know what happened yesterday. Today, I discussed it extensively for hours with teachers and peers. The funny thing was, unlike the election: no one was in agreement with what had happened. Going online, checking Facebook to see what people were saying, was obviously a different story. Internet sleuths writing that Trump has saved us! Liberals just want to tax us even more! Call the whole world liberals then, because this goes beyond money (even though this decision loses us money, too).

I wasn’t surprised by the news. On the campaign trail, Trump promised over and over again to withdraw the United States from this terrible deal. He promised the blue collar voter living in middle America, who felt that their voices weren’t being heard, that their voices will finally be heard. Maybe he had this in the back of his mind while making this decision, maybe he thought that he could somehow, miraculously revive the coal industry (which just makes me think ???), but the United States of America withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement, and just like that, a three year long process has begun. There is no doubt that this will be a major topic of discussion for the next presidential, and even midterm elections (register to vote for 2018! Midterms matter!). The day that we officially withdraw from this agreement falls right around election day, ironically enough. Given that Trump will be 74 when these elections come around, and we haven’t finished the first year of his first term, there is no telling who’s hands this will be in. But don’t fear, my fellow crazy liberals! Our planet will be saved! And although we only stand alongside Nicaragua (who actually didn’t sign on the Paris treaty because it didn’t go far enough to fighting climate change) and Syria (who doesn’t really have a functioning government at the moment, you know, civil war and all), states, cities, and companies have publicly announced that they will still follow the treaty guidelines.

French President Emmanuel Macron posted a viral video to Facebook, and in this video he encouraged American scientists and engineers to flock to France to conduct climate science and make a difference. My science teacher told me that the ironic part of this is how this is what the United States was doing during the Space Race. We were encouraging foreign scientists and engineers to come to America to help us on the quest for space exploration. Back then, it didn’t matter that they were from other nations because space exploration was beneficial to the whole world. But now, with climate change, we turn our backs. The United States of America has officially, (federally) stopped fighting climate change.

This means that now, more than ever, our voices matter. Our government is working against us, and we can and will resist, for the future of our home, ourselves, and our children. We will not stop…

“It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” -Eleanor Roosevelt. 

Zero Waste Day 1!

Yesterday, I went zero waste. Or at least I tried. I recycled a bunch, a Dunkin’ Donuts cup, a recyclable empty bag of chips, and a Chipotle container. I decided that I will give myself some leeway with work, because yesterday, I threw away a lot of garbage that wasn’t mine.

I work in a retail store, and our recyclable capabilities are limited. We can only recycle cardboard, everything else gets thrown away. With my zero waste promise in the back of my mind, it particularly pained me to throw away so much packing materials and plastics. Next week I plan to say something to my boss about maybe talking to the person who owns the building and asking for a recycle bin to join the garbage and cardboard bins. Otherwise, I think I did pretty well. Day 1 doesn’t nearly encompass all of what zero waste living really is. I didn’t have to go out and buy food, clothing, etc. Besides throwing away trash at work (which, technically, isn’t even my trash- but I still felt all the guilt), I felt great!