earth day/week/etc challenges?

[g u a v a]

with it being earth day on monday and the new earth week forum event, is there anything that you would like to challenge yourself to do more sustainably?

personally, i feel like i can easily cut down on the amount of single-use plastics and other disposables. it can be a bit annoying but i want to challenge myself to remember to bring my reusable bags out with me and to turn down in-store bags when i forget mine. my thought is that the inconvenience of having to carry things without a bag will encourage me to remember to bring them out with me.

 

[Midoriya]

One thing I'd really like to do is eat more vegetables and fruit, and thankfully we actually have a garden for it now, so I'd like to grow more of my own veggies and fruits instead of buying them from the store. I don't eat store-bought ones that often anyway, so I feel like it would be a good change.

I also recycle regularly, but I want to also try and reuse stuff more so that it doesn't end up in a landfill.

 

[jadetine]

I’m going to take credit for already composting and recycling regularly, but I would also like to cut down on plastic usage and water usage.

 

[Aquilla]

I feel like I’m already doing a lot, at least of the things that are in my control (no car, no plane, saving water and electricity, recycling, bring reusable bags and containers ). I’d like to reduce my single use plastic waste, but it’s quite tricky because most groceries are wrapped in one or even two layers of it. I try to buy the non-packaged produce whenever I can but still end up with a ton of waste in my bin every week. I’ll try to be more mindful though (for example get the pasta in cardboard boxes rather than plastic wrapping etc).

 

[skarmoury]

After last month’s bill (aircon abuse cuz it’s so hot…. sheesh), I’m definitely more conscious about electricity now Need to limit my aircon use raaargh. Also been thinking of growing some of my own plants when I take a gap year, it’ll help me wind down + take responsibility for the littler things. Need to also remind myself to bring my reusable cups every time I go to coffee shops especially now that I’ve become more dependent on drinks while I study oops

 

[JellyLu]

I've actually made a few personal goals to do my part to better the planet! I decided I'm going to actually use the cute reusable grocery bags I have accumulated for their intended purpose in order to cut out plastic bag consumption. I already bought a cirkul water bottle to cut down on my use of plastic water bottles. I also plan to extend my love for plants into food gardening. I'd love to grow some of my own crops! I think I'm going to start with cucumbers and carrots. I also planted some native wildflower seeds around the community for Earth day Hopefully I can do my part and do even more as time goes on.

 

[ZetaFunction]

A few people in this thread have already mentioned this, but I think I would also like to cut down on plastics and wasteful packaging and just overall consumption. Maybe focusing on buying foods or products with eco-friendly packaging or recyclable packaging, with an emphasis on eating more produce (fruits and vegetables) as well. Maybe even cutting down on eating a lot of processed food since produce is typically less packaged and is better for you than stuff that's in cardboard boxes or plastic.

Another thing is where I live there's no option to recycle- the recycling center got shut down thanks to some dumb-dumbs that abused it and used it for excess trash hauling (which is kind of ironic....). So finding somewhere local where I can take recyclables would be another fun challenge. It might also give me more motivation for buying products in eco-friendly packaging and do some research into environmentally friendly companies.

 

[MiniPocketWorld]

I've been trying to pay attention to people who do diy stuff by repurposing stuff. Like I saw someone make a towel rack and shelves for the bathroom with a chair upside down on the wall and it actually looked good. Like you didn't look at it and be like, this person has a chair hanging on their wall upside down in their bathroom
I also saw some people make towel racks/shelves with a basket too and it was cute and small which is great if your bathroom is small.

 

[Corrie]

I've been trying to be more sustainable and here's some things that I currently do.

-I recycle all year round
-I use a reusable water bottle
-I use reusable period products
-I keep every light off in the house unless I am currently in that room
-I take reusable shopping bags with me for groceries (our government forced us to technically)
-I avoid prepackaged portions of things. Example: I'd rather buy a big bag of goldfish crackers or large tub of yogurt and portion them into reusable plastic containers, instead of buying the yogurt cups or goldfish snack bags
-I use reusable tupperware for lunches and hardly use plastic baggies
-I make my own loose leaf tea with the stainless steel insert in place of tea bags at home and use reusable travel mug
-I avoid buying veggies in plastic that don't need to be in plastic as much as I can

The one thing that I would like to find a reusable version of is plastic wrap. I know beeswax wrap is a thing but it's pricy and I heard it loses its stickiness after a while? So I'm not sure. I basically want something to wrap my large tortilla wraps in for my lunch and also something to cover cereal bowls in.

I really should be taking shorter showers but man... I just love the hot water.

 

[himekirako]

there's some things i've been doing for a while now

• bringing reusable bags with me (ok they're really tote bags but they work too!)
• reusable water > bottled water
• any plastic bag becomes a handy trash bag either in the house or for the cars
• any sturdy container we get our hands on, we'll repurpose it
• any food scrap or waste will eventually become compost or fertilizer
• we've been growing more produce in our garden !! lots of tomatoes, lettuce, kale, sooooo many different herbs, and chili peppers
• i've switched saran wrap to those wax papers!! i have to convince my mom to switch too but we still have to go through what we have
• my sister and i have our own metal straws that we bring with us when we go out

i'm conscious of the fact that we wear disposable masks but that's cause we still have to bring my mom to the hospital for her treatments. there's also my long hot showers but... they just feel so nice (๑•́ ᎔ ก̀๑)

 

[MiniPocketWorld]

I've been trying to be more sustainable and here's some things that I currently do.

-I recycle all year round
-I use a reusable water bottle
-I use reusable period products
-I keep every light off in the house unless I am currently in that room
-I take reusable shopping bags with me for groceries (our government forced us to technically)
-I avoid prepackaged portions of things. Example: I'd rather buy a big bag of goldfish crackers or large tub of yogurt and portion them into reusable plastic containers, instead of buying the yogurt cups or goldfish snack bags
-I use reusable tupperware for lunches and hardly use plastic baggies
-I make my own loose leaf tea with the stainless steel insert in place of tea bags at home and use reusable travel mug
-I avoid buying veggies in plastic that don't need to be in plastic as much as I can

The one thing that I would like to find a reusable version of is plastic wrap. I know beeswax wrap is a thing but it's pricy and I heard it loses its stickiness after a while? So I'm not sure. I basically want something to wrap my large tortilla wraps in for my lunch and also something to cover cereal bowls in.

I really should be taking shorter showers but man... I just love the hot water.

I saw there are reusable freezer gallon bags like Ziploc. I'm not sure if they are like a thick plastic bag or silicone or how great they are long term. Not sure that it will be big enough for a large tortilla, but maybe you could use smaller ones and take two wraps or eat something else that's easier to store with a smaller wrap.
Just ideas

I never thought about bulk buying being less packaging but I guess it can be with some items.