Naomi Maldonado

Conserving water is something I try in do in small ways on a day to day basis already. When I am brushing my teeth or washing dishes, I always turn the water off when it is not being immediately used. Something new that I have started doing is turning to water off and on while taking a shower. I feel like letting the water run while, for example, scrubbing by hair is so wasteful, so I've opted to turning it off and on several times a shower. Doing this is definitely annoying, and a little convenient, but those are the sacrifices one has to make in efforts to be more sustainable. I love convenience in my life, and overcoming this has been my biggest difficulty in trying to stick to more sustainable practices.

For this week's food eco challenge, I tried to keep my focus on eating more sustainable food sources. First, I made tofu for the first time this week, which I ended up loving and will probably incorporate into my weekly meals going forward. Cattle grazing and commercial animal farming is something I have been hyper aware about tin the past few years, and become more and more passionate about every time I discuss it. I grew up not eating beef or pork, so they are both very easy for me to avoid. Chicken has been my main meat source for the entirely of my life, so I simply decided to replace a meal this week that I would usually make with chicken with tofu. I don't believe eating meat is inherited wrong, however, I do believe commercial meat farming and deforestation are huge issues and I hate to know I am contributing to them. I would love to someday be completely vegan, but until then I think I am going to continue to limit my meat consumption and try to acquire my meat locally and from organic farms. The PSU farmer's market is something I have been meaning to get to forever now, and I just recently learned they have meat vendors. I am definitely going to check them out and see what I can get to replace the meat I would typically buy at the grocery store. Finally, I also decided I am going to try and stop buying berries that are out of season. This is something I have never payed attention to in the past, but my last few grocery trips I have skipped out on some fruits I would normally buy simply because spring is not they were not in season.

Considering my energy usage this week was enjoyable for me, and I definitely have built better habits that I am going to use going forward. I integrated a few of the energy actions into my week, one being turning things off. For some background, as of several months ago this is my first time paying my. own utility bills. Having the cost of my energy usage come out of my own pocket definitely made me change my perspective and be more diligent. I have built a better habit of turning everything off when I leave the house over the past several weeks, but this week I focused on turning things off simply when I am not using them. I just recently leaned (sadly) that powers strips are using power when on and plugged in, even if nothing is being plugged into them and actively used. I have so many of these in my house and have left them on my entire life, but this week I made sure to turn them off anytime they were being used. Another way I have been conserving energy is by simply not turning on my thermostat unless I know I am going to be home the entire following day and its gong to be particularly cold. I realized I am not home enough to make good use out of the heat I accurate in my house after having the thermostat on for a night, and I can make do with some blankets and warm clothes while I'm home.

For this week, I tried to take some specific steps to start reducing my daily waste. Cotton pads are something I was using a surplus of, and I realize how inefficient this is in protecting the environment. I use approximately 3 cotton pads on a typical day; that's 90 cotton pads a month, and 1,080 cotton pads a year. To resolve this, I acquired a pack of reusable "cotton pads" to use on a day to day basis. So far, they have been really nice and I am going to try and have them remain as a part of my daily routine. My biggest worry when it comes to using these cotton pads is the cleaning process. They of course, have to be washed, and they make it easy and provide a sack they can be put in to be washed in the washer with the rest of your clothes. I can be very particular about my skin and what I put on it, and reusing these cotton pads while having to rely on them being thoroughly washed is a bit stressful for me. Especially when I am using them to take off makeup product, they are bound to get stained. For me, it is difficult to see past these stains and recognize them as clean. I think I am going to hand wash them to make myself feel a little better and like the wash job is being done thoroughly.