Eye Opener: Photo Essay

HI Guys!

Since I did a read "n" seed, I figured that I would do a photo essay on a eco chic behavior change with recycling! Through this class, I've learned to believe in environmental change at the individual level. All of the small changes we do adds up to a big impact for the better. This post's objective was to show what a little effort can do for the environment.

This is a really cool video to watch about why we should recycle and reduce paper use
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g087a8vclig

One example of this video is that we can reduce on 587lbs of  air pollution and 58% of water usage.

This is my trash bin, and I wondered if I dug through it how much stuff I could find that could be recycled. By the looks of it, there is a lot of paper in this trash bin that could be reused or recycled. 

One way for me to get me change in recycling is to make it an easy change. For example, I'm probably not going to want to do a lot of traveling up and down the stairs just to recycle paper, so I've got to make it easy for myself. My bedroom where this trash can is in the basement and the main recycling bin is upstairs. I was realistic with my laziness, and realized that every time I have paper to recycle, I'm not going to go all the way upstairs to make it happen per sheet of paper. 

The amount of paper I took out of my trash bin took up at least 50% of the room. To think, this is what I normally throw away???? I'm glad I've chosen this to change. 

How much paper do Americans waste? According to the EPA, 29% of our solid waste is from paper!  THis site also has recycling help for citizens, students, teachers etc. I found it really cool how they have power points on recycling already made for environmental educators

This is the amount of paper that I took out of the trash can. If I have a recycle bin right by my trash can, I'm more likely to separate the recyclables from the true trash. 

Ok, I'm a college kid on a college budget. I don't have the money to spare for a fancy recycling bin. I used a little brain action and decided to use a paper bag to put right next to my trash bin. I know for myself, if I label things to remember that they have a specific job I'll keep the behavior change. I used some left over paper and taped it on the bag to say, "recycling paper." 

I also started to try other things out with recycling paper. As students, at the end of the semester we have left over notebooks with some used paper and left over paper that's blank and useable. This is a picture of my five star notebook. I took the time to rip out the used paper, and keep the blank paper in this book. I can use this for another semester, plus I don't have to buy another $7 notebook!! Woo hoo!

If we want to recycle, it might help to make it easier on ourselves, have 1 recycling bin for every trash bin. Just fyi, MPIRG is also going to do a trash audit on this tuesday around campus. I'll be telling the results of how much stuff is still not being recycled on campus. It should be interesting!

The end!

Eye Opener: Junk on the Brain

1.  

 1)The terms above have to do with environmental health, because they are ways of saving things before heading to the landfill for excess pollution. They are all basically ways of recycling anything that can be reused again. Like they say, “One person’s trash may be another’s treasure……or reinvented treasure.” I believe that the strongest aspects of environmental health are using the human brain to find ways to live with the environment rather than above it. All of these categories are different ways of living with what we have rather than using more resources to create new things.

2.    I know this website isn’t local, but I wanted to share it anyways.

http://www.etsy.com/

2)One of my favorite things is to go though old antique shops to look at all of the cool things they have. One of which in Canal Park is Father Time Antiques. If you are in Canal with a friend this is a really fun activity to do if you feel like browsing. Their address is 395 S Lake Ave Duluth, MN 55802. Phone number is 218-625-2379. Sorry, no website available, but that’s a good thing. If you can’t see it on a website, then you’ll just have mto stop in.

3.   3)Some of these things, I may use. I remember getting my boyfriend a $3 dollar John Deer Gift glass and he loved it! If you know who you’re shopping for and what their interests are you usually can find things for a cheap price. It’s also unique gifts to spark peoples interests rather than just getting gifts cars, but both of these things doesn’t hurt.

4) This is a candle holder. The picture at the top of my blog isn't something I would put in my house because I'm a little picky, but I like the concept of mixing something that my motor head mechanic boyfriend would like with something girly that I would pick. I find it stuff like this inspirational, it takes something that would resemble an "ugly duckling" object and jazzes it up with some color to make it look like a "swan-like" decor item. 

Environmental Working Group

Hey Gang!

This website was amazing and I'm definitely going to use it for many other products.
I'm a huge sunscreen fan. I don't know if the freckles and pale skin gave it away ha ha. In all seasons, I have to apply sunscreen numerous times, so I decided to put in my most favorite brand. My picture is linked to the part of the website.

My over all score was 7. For the positives, my spf protection was good and stability was excellent. Nothing was extremely health threatening about this product. The UVA and UVB balance and my health concern was moderate. I'm a little confused though because a score of 7 means high hazard. In the "other concerns" line it showed oxybenzone and vitamin A. What I questioned is why Vitamin A would be bad for you?

I'll come back to the Vitamin A part later, but for now I'm going to tackle oxybenzone. This chemical is one that is tied to reproductive issues, immunotoxicity, and allergies.  Blagh! I did some extra research and came to find that Vitamin A  in sunscreen is linked to skin tumors.

Now, that I learned what was negative about all of this, my mission was to find a plan of action to change. I found what the website recommended. My recommendation was a hat and clothing. Well I can try for this, but it's not that realistic for me all of the time. The top sunscreens are, Adorable Baby, Alba Bontanica, and All Terrain.

I'll have do some research on how much these cost, but they are probably cheaper than trying to deal with medical issues after they have been diagnosed. TTYL!

Welcome to GreenMachine by Shannon F

Hey eco Guys and Gals! I'm Shannon Flaherty and I'm so glad you could make it to my blog!

This blog is going to be about the things we chose to put in our bodies as fuel. This includes food and water. My Read 'n' Seed is on Aqua Shock: The Water Crisis in America so there will be ample information on water: what are the current issues with it, how that affects agriculture, and how we can change to conserve and provide clean water. I'll also be reading "The Food Revolution" to give information on the food that water grows for us to keep living. One specific quote by Hippocrates motivated me to study the relationship between man and food in terms of health. He said, "let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food." I know this hasn't been America's strongest point: being the fast food nation, but we are already making efforts to go back to our grass roots. Our mothers said urged us to drink water instead of pop and eat our greens, but this blog is taking it further than that. I'm on a mission to motivate people to turn into GreenMachines. 

There are 5 possible types of posts on my blog. They include:

1. Advocacy Project
2. Eye Openers
3. Reflections
4. Read 'n' Seed
5. Share and Voice

If you notice at the bottom of this post, the categories will be listed as labels. This post has been labeled with all five kinds of posts. You will also see the number of each kind of post in my Labels Gadget at the top of the page. All post titles from now on will begin with one of the categories above.

The members of my web group are: 

1. http://colefisher.blogspot.com/
2. http://enviro-surfingwithamyandkristen.blogspot.com/
3. http://creativewithcayla.blogspot.com/
4. http://www.blogger.com/profile/05507051340565114957a

You can also follow my blog by clicking "Follow this Blog" in the gadget column. You can see my complete profile and all the blogs I am following by clicking on "See Complete Profile." (Make sure all these gadgets are in place).

I'm really excited to share all that I know on this topic. I'm hoping to do the read'n'seed and I'll definitely be sharing on this. If you have an interest in this similar topic, you can blog and talk to me. Go Green while being a GreenMachine!