Dykstra Recycling Competition

If anyone lives in Dykstra Hall there is a great opportunity to increase recycling among on-campus residents!  This week only (8th week) Dykstra Hall will be participating in a recycling competition.  Each floor should donate as many plastic, glass or other recyclables as possible because the money will go back to the winning floor.  If that weren't enough to convince you, the floor that recycles the most will receive a chocolate fountain party. Now who doesn't love chocolate and fountains?

In all seriousness, if every Dysktra resident were to contribute one plastic bottle, we as a collective residence hall would be able to recycle close to one thousand bottles.  Since the energy saved by recycling just one plastic bottle will power a computer for 25 minutes, multiply that by 1,000 and that's enough energy to power a computer for 17 days, 8 hours and 40 minutes.  And recycling 10 tons of PET plastic saves as much greenhouse gas emissions as removing more than three cars from the road for one year.  Have I convinced you yet? Dykstra residents, GO RECYCLE!

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Pondering the Apple

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My morning routine consists of eating an apple on to go.  Seemingly no trash involved, right? Wrong.  I am faced ever day with the moral question of whether to throw my apple's core into the trash, only to be transferred to some far-away pit of garbage we call landfills, or to simply toss it in a nearby patch of trees in the hope that a lucky squirrel or bird will have a nice lunch.  Which one would the true environmentalist choose?  In striving to be a knowledgable and cultured person conscious of my choices and their impacts, this is a dilemma that I am torn on.

So how biodegradable really is my apple core? Right before I toss my apple out the car window or just off the walking path, I convince myself that it is made up of organic matter, making it harmless to the Earth.  Yet the thought of littering persists.  In reality, the core probably gets kicked around for a while, never really disintegrating into the ground.  I urge you to consider every item of trash that you throw out.  What will be its affect in the long-term, in the grand scheme of things?

"Reduce, Reuse, Recycle"

That trilogy we call grew up learning.  It was omnipresent throughout our schooling. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.  The three triangular arrows symbolize a simple but impactful set of actions.  Yet even though these actions have been held in high honor for so long in our minds, they have always remained a vague generalization of certain environmentally beneficial practices.
How can I really reduce, reuse and recycle in my own life? Upon some research- better known as a quick Google search- I found a pretty organized and informative website put together by non other than our very own Environmental Protection Agency. The average internet surfer and general curious citizen can inform themselves on neat little ways to get involved in sustainability, starting right at home! The site offers easy ideas for recycling at home, at school, at work, on the go and in the community. Donate your clothes and old electronics, compost your food scraps and separate old newspapers from the rest of your trash for paper recycling.  Not quite inspired yet? Check it out for yourself RIGHT HERE !

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What Your Choice of Water Bottle Says About You

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I made a consciously "green" effort last year when I made the switch from throw-away plastic water bottles to a reusable plastic one.  I knew I was contributing in some small yet significant way, but what difference was I really making?  And, furthermore, when I made another switch from a reusable plastic water bottle to a reusable glass bottle, what effect, if any, did this have on Planet Earth?

What got me thinking in the first place about quitting non-reusable plastic bottles was a documentary I watched last year in my AP Environmental Science class called Tapped.  (For those of you wishing to be radically inspired to do the same, the documentary is on Netflix)  Tapped covers the bottled water industry from plastic production to bottling and selling the water and ruthlessly criticizes industry practices.  The documentary also sheds light on the governmental side of things over in Washington, D.C.  It was shocking to me to learn how little federal regulation is given to this industry that is responsible for a very large percentage of our nation's drinking water (a.k.a the percentage of Americans who drink bottled water on the reg).

In short, think about how you get your water and which type of container you choose to drink it out of.  Your choices do make an impact, I promise.

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Diet and our Ecological Footprint

While doing this week's reading for the lecture, the textbook briefly mentioned the effects that our dietary choices play in the environment.  The book asks us how we think we could lower our footprint through our food choices.  So while I have been vegetarian for about 6 months now, I've never really considered that choice in terms of benefiting the environment.  My decision not to eat any meat or fish stemmed from a purely personal and health-conscious place.

This idea that I have the power to reduce my footprint just by choosing different foods got me thinking more about which foods I should try to avoid and which I should eat more of.  The obvious food groups come to mind: meat, milk, eggs and other animal products.  What do these foods have in common that make them worse for the environment?  The answer that was clear to me was that all these foods are labor-intensive.  That is, these foods require large industries and factories to produce; consequently, the production and distribution use high volumes of energy and water.  Many of these industries pollute our water and air (such phenomenon also contributes to the idea of Hardin's "Tragedy of the Commons").  So, then, if we should limit our intake of meat and dairy on the basis that their production wreaks much havoc on our environment, shouldn't we also be avoiding all the other foods from the processed food industry?  This, I believe, is just the tip of the iceberg of the conversation on food in today's modern culture.


Photo credits:
1. https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=nT3pSEXJ9iXGmM&tbnid=KCmDnIcXtbaYFM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwakeup-world.com%2F2013%2F06%2F24%2F10-things-the-processed-food-industry-doesnt-want-you-to-know%2F&ei=0M5RUpL9PMPCigKLjYD4BA&bvm=bv.53537100,d.cGE&psig=AFQjCNE6FeISLDpKX_YQZv_ejVWnlxO6lA&ust=1381179157190036
2. https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=BA_G-oSZ1zyQUM&tbnid=mcd9HlEUm1AvnM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwholelifekitchens.wordpress.com%2F2013%2F03%2F20%2F10-things-the-food-industry-doesnt-want-you-to-know%2F&ei=Q85RUo_yCae9igK6t4CoDA&bvm=bv.53537100,d.cGE&psig=AFQjCNE6FeISLDpKX_YQZv_ejVWnlxO6lA&ust=1381179157190036
3. https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=jzSFcbLZIlibxM&tbnid=qy5ICOcv31vaUM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nutraingredients.com%2FResearch%2FFinished-product-fortification-Tackling-the-challenges-of-omega-3-in-processed-foods&ei=xM5RUu_2GOnGiwLauoHoBg&bvm=bv.53537100,d.cGE&psig=AFQjCNE6FeISLDpKX_YQZv_ejVWnlxO6lA&ust=1381179157190036