Kit Stauf

Unfortunately, these past few weeks I have been extremely occupied with work for various classes, and I haven't felt I had the time or energy to participate in an Ecochallenge. I'm aware there are options for lowkey nature Ecochallenges, such as gratitude journaling or just spending some time outside, but I've honestly been so tired and stressed that I had not made the effort to do so. This is disappointing for me because I do enjoy spending time in nature, and our trip to Tryon Creek this week reminded me of how long it has been since I have done so. With this in mind, I am going to try and plan a day either during finals week (I only have one final during that actual week) or spring break where I can take a short trip with family or a friend and enjoy nature together. If anyone has any suggestions on where I could visit I'd love to hear!

I thought that this week's theme was consumerism, so that is what my action and reflection are based on. I am much less consumerist than I was just a few years ago, but it can still be useful to evaluate what items I am purchasing and why. This week, I made a list of everything that I personally purchased, or was purchased on my behalf. I didn't buy much overall, and I only consider two of the items that I did get as "wants" rather than needs: a Thai tea and a really nice smelling bar of soap (I had already gotten soap earlier the same day from grocery shopping). I would be interested in doing this activity again on a week where I do make more purchases for one reason or another, to get a better idea of how often I'm buying wants rather than needs.

I don't drive, so I frequently take public transportation. I'm lucky to have 3 TriMet lines near where I live, 2 of which are frequent service. However, I do rely on rides from family members to make things easier and quicker for me. For example, most days I have class I am dropped off at the MAX stop that I take to campus, rather than bussing to the stop. I heavily rely on this because it give me a lot of extra time in the morning, and I have some health issues that make mornings difficult for me. I haven't implemented this change yet, but I'm thinking that if I have afternoon classes in the upcoming terms, I should get myself to walk and bus to the MAX stop instead of using a ride. That way, I can get some exercise and have less personal fuel use (even if I'm technically not the one driving). This week I carpooled with Nui to get to our field trip, and that was nice! I haven't carpooled in a long time, but I would love if there's more opportunities for me to do so in the future.

To foster connection to my community this week, I've been discussing my project and things I have learned in this class with my family, including outside of my household. Though my composting project is still very much a work-in-progress, I've been keeping my mom up to date on the information I have been gathering about what can and can't be composted, what good composting practices look like, and how we will hopefully incorporate composting more and more into our household over time. My mom also likes to garden, so I have brought up the topic of how synthetic fertilizers are really not good for the overall health of the environment. Additionally, I mentioned that I was going to begin composting to my grandma, who is someone that is very eco-conscious and has instilled a strong desire to "save the Earth" in me since I was a very young child. Lastly, for the independent field trip, I found a local "no waste" store (Mama & Hapa's), and am planning to visit there with my mom. I'm hoping that I will find products there that will be easy to add to or substitute into my lifestyle, and I will be supporting a local small business at the same time!

I use reusable water bottles, even when I'm at home! That way, I can keep a filled water bottle by my bed and don't need to wash a glass every day. I also never leave my faucet running when I'm washing the dishes, but I notice some of my family members do. Unfortunately, this hasn't changed despite me commenting on it. I don't think I'm up for the challenge of 5 minute showers yet, but almost all of my showers have been only about 15 minutes for the past 5 or so years. I liked the idea from this week of collecting rainwater, but I'm not sure what my household would use it for aside from perhaps watering plants.

To be honest, I didn't engage very thoroughly in this week's ecochallenge. I already struggle with choosing and preparing meals for myself rather than relying my household to prepare them for me for reasons that are difficult to explain. At this time, I don't feel like I am prepared or able to make any big changes regarding my meal habits. However, I have been trying to be conscious of where the ingredients and foods that I use and eat come from, just to be more aware of how I am involved in this chain of consumption. I am also trying to make some more healthful choices with what I eat, balancing "something to fill me up quickly" with "something that my body needs now."

This week, I tried limiting my "passive" energy use. I often like to put my laptop to sleep rather than fully powering it down so that it takes less time to start and I can keep tabs open. I've trying to do this less, by bookmarking tabs to come back to, and always powering my laptop down fully at the end of the night. I'll only leave my laptop on sleep overnight if I'm in the middle of a task that I want to keep my workflow open on. I also turned off the power strip that powers my TV and game consoles in my room, as I don't use most of these extremely frequently. I'll turn it on when I want to play games.

To help reduce and properly dispose of waste this week, I looked further into what contaminates recycling. I already knew a lot about what shouldn't be in the recycling bin, but there's always more to learn. In a previous class I took, I learned about the idea of "hopeful recycling," where people put things into their mixed recycling in hopes that it will be accepted and recycled. In actuality, this can contaminate the properly recyclable materials, causing entire batches of otherwise recyclable material to be thrown out.
I'm aware that food is a big contaminant, so any food packaging that has food residue on it I make sure to throw away. Additionally, I make sure to rinse out plastic containers very well so they do not leak liquid that could contaminate paper/cardboard recycling.
Frozen food boxes or containers that have a waxy coating are also not recyclable. Unfortunately, I've been putting this type of box in the recycling for years, so I feel pretty bad about that. But I'm able to make that change now.
For plastic in Portland, much of what is recyclable depends on the shape and size of the item, rather than plastic type. Plastic bags are an especially troublesome contaminant, because they can can get wrapped around the processing machinery and damage it.
Tin/aluminum foil can be recycled as long as it is clean, dry, and crumpled into a ball at least the size of a tennis ball. So I've started cleaning some of the foil I use and keeping it in a little ball, to put in the recycling once it gets big enough.