Reflection: Weeks 11 and 12

Week 11

I wasn't in class for this week. However, I watched the video off the calendar called The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard. This was an incredibly informative video! I can't believe that 1/3 of the planets natural resources have been consumed, and 40% of the water ways in the U.S. have become undrinkable. If every country in the the World used resources like we do, it would tale 3 to 5 planets to support us, that's disgusting. Actually almost everything from this video completely disgusting, such as that man that decided after WWII to try and change the economy to basically just be revolved around buying, buying, and more buying. And then throwing away almost everything we do buy with in 6 months of purchasing it.

I also posted for my eco-chic lifestyle change which went really well for me that week! Posted about my Advocacy project, which is about increasing the amount of money reimbursed to schools from the state for lunch programs. And I also finished up the book I was reading; Under a Green Sky. 


Week 12
This week we started off talking about our photo essays, and learned about MckLinky blog hops. I really liked seeing everyone's topics that they chose to take pictures of! We also talked about writing a letter to a politcal representative or editor.

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change: Week 9

Week 9

This past week had been a little difficult, due to the fact that I was in the cities for most of it. Right after break I went to the grocery store and remembered my bags. But I went to Trader Joes with my mom while in the cities and didn't have any re-usable bags with me, especially since we were in a rental car.  It was frustrating for me because we used 3 paper bags, because we also bought grocery's for my brother.

Successes

When I was using my car and I was up in Duluth, I remembered to use my re-usable bags.

Challenges

Once again the problem arose that when I go grocery shopping with someone else, not in my car, I never have a re-usable bag.  It is frusterating for me that this has become such a challenge. Since I was in a rental car, this was a semi unavoidable, but it has become an ongoing problem.

Plans for Next Week

My goal for next week will remain the same. "I will use a re-usable bag everytime I go to the grocery store or Target."

Eye Opener: Photo Essay

Hey Everyone! For my photo eassay I decided to document how much waste a family can accumulate during just one holiday. It was sad to see how much gets thrown away, I had never really taken the time to notice. There could have been better choices made that would have been more environmentally friendly.  I obviously chose Thanksgiving and there were about 20 of us.

Here the first bag of trash that was being taken out at only about 11 am.

These are two aluminum pans being thrown away that were used to cook the dressing. This was a time that I thought reusable pans could have been just as easily used, and would have been much more environmentally friendly.

This is a stack of plates that were used for the appitizers. On multiple occasions I noticed people setting their first plate down, and without thinking grab another plate later. Accumulating even more unnecessary waste.

This is yet another stack of plates, but from dessert. We went through a lot of paper plates.

This is a picture of the garbage can at the end of the night. There had been two bags in it before, but as you can see it was overflowing by the end of the night

This was a fun project to do! Everyone was asking why I was taking pictures of the trash, so when I explained that I was documenting how much trash one family can go through for just one holiday it helped open other people's eyes to this problem. I hope that at Christmas we can make some better decisions.


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