One thing people can do to help their community become more sustainable is start a community garden. It not only brings the community together to continuously work on a project, but also provides them with locally grown food!

Now that I have stepped away from checking my email, and spending less time on my phone/ laptop, I have noticed a change in my stress levels. I am not worrying as much during the day and it has given me more time to focus on things I actually enjoy.

There is a landfill located in Waimanalo. It is hard to have multiple landfills here on Oahu because there is not a lot of space for them, and I imagine it would affect a lot of people in communities if we had a lot of landfills. Communities that are affected the most by landfill locations are the ones that live near the landfills. Their health can be affected, they can be surrounded by unpleasant smells, and also it can affect traffic in the area if trucks are constantly going there to dump waste.

We toured the PRRF, which is a facility on Oahu, HI that collects plastics that are found in the ocean. We got to see types of plastics like nets, and ones that have been put through shredders. I learned that mixed polymer plastic is a lot harder to put through the shredder rather than HDPE. HDPE can be found in trawl nets and make up 20% of our marine debris. I also learned that polyethylene is made up of carbon and hydrogen, and when burned, contributes to GHG emissions.

Spending more time outside is not only good for you in multiple ways, but great for your brain. By spending time outside one can start to focus on things they usually don't, boost your mental health, and promote physical activity which helps your brain power. I know that when I spend more time outside I feel less stressed and happier.

Sometimes it can be hard to switch to reusable cups, such as for coffee, because not everyone has a coffee maker at home and needs to go to a shop to buy a coffee. It can also be time consuming to make your own coffee at home if you are in a rush to get out the door and a coffee shop is on the way. I went ahead and bought a cheap, small coffee maker to avoid constantly going to Starbucks in the morning, and it feels good knowing that I am not using so many single use coffee cups.

The main water source on Oahu is groundwater from an aquifer. If you didn't know where to find this information, you could visit the Board of Water Supply's website (https://www.boardofwatersupply.com/water-resources/oahu-water-history).

Explored a lot of new cafes and shops

To incorporate other personal values into an exercise routine, you could do yoga outside so you are with nature. You can also invite your friends to join you. I often exercise with my friends so we can build each other up.

Creativity is a necessary ingredient for practicing simplicity because it can help you find more ways to make multiple things from one simple thing. One pen can write/draw thousands of words/pictures.