Max Power

For this week's Ecochallenge, I decided to learn about Restorative Justice. To involve the community aspect of this week's challenge, I researched restorative justice projects within my own community. As we learned in this week's modules, a lot of what is keeping communities from connecting is the lack of information.

When conducting my research I found a project called Restorative Roots. Based in Oregon, Restorative Roots is a nonprofit that implements restorative justice with Oregon Criminal Justice Commission funds. It is very easy to navigate their website with various options to donate, volunteer, or learn about their mission.

For this week's Eco-Challenge, I decided to cut back on my shower length to save water. I decided to choose 5-Minute Showers because of how easy of a change it can be to my routine. Deciding to shower fast not only helps me get ready faster but also saves a lot of water that's unnecessarily wasted.

While participating in this challenge and thinking about water usage, I was reminded just how much water goes into things. When we did our group presentations in class about food, my group picked cheeseburgers, which use 700 gallons of water. This puts into perspective how much water is needed to make the things we need to survive.

Cutting down on my shower time is an easy way to reduce my water usage without any necessary tools or skills needed. Aside from saving water, one benefit that I noticed was that I spend a lot less time showering meaning that my mornings became more efficient.

For this week's activity related to sustainability and food, I decided to meal-prep. Meal-prepping is something that I've always wanted to do, as it can be very beneficial for health and for reducing food waste. I bought a roasted chicken and pulled it apart, storing it in a couple of glass containers in my fridge. I also made rice and did the same.

For the past couple of days for dinner, I take out the glass containers put chicken over rice, and heat it up. It has been very easy and something I can definitely see myself doing more of in the future. This helps me save not only money for dinners during the week but I also spend less time thinking or actually cooking dinner. I also don't waste food as everything that I've prepared I eat or it can go back in the fridge if I don't finish.

For this week's Eco-Challenge I decided to turn off my electronics when I wasn't directly using them. I decided to choose this eco challenge because of its relation to our in-class material theme of energy. I was inspired by the video in class where people used the tops of plastic bottles along with the sun to provide light into their homes. This type of ingenuity inspired me to self-evaluate my own energy use.

This week I started turning off my computer, lights, music, and heat whenever I wasn't directly using them. One of the biggest obstacles I faced when limiting my energy use this week was remembering to turn off my PC. I am one of those people that likes to keep my PC on all the time and trying to break that habit whenever I leave the house or even my room was challenging at first.

One action I chose to complete regarding reducing trash was implementing a reusable water bottle. Often I find myself going to the fridge and getting a cold plastic water bottle in the 24-pack. However, we have learned just how devastating trash can be to the environment this week.

One of the things that inspired me to buy and start to use a reusable water bottle was this week's TED Talk. I was fascinated that she was able to hold the amount of trash that she produced in 3 years. This made me reflect on my habits which included drinking water at home as the 24-pack of plastic water bottles has an insane amount of waste.

One obstacle that I faced when starting to use my reusable water bottle was the extra effort needed just to drink water. Usually, I just take another bottle out of the pack which is already cold, and it's very simple. However now with my reusable water bottle, I need to fill it up with tap water and add ice to make it colder. Even though it's less convenient I think it's a sacrifice that's worth it now after understanding the benefits of a reusable water bottle.