When I was paying my bill for WM this month, I decided to search their website a bit for anything interesting, since I am always looking for new and interesting thoughts related to recycling. I discovered that as the North America's largest recycler, they offer a lot more than just curbside pickup of all the traditional recyclables. They also offer safe disposal options for fluorescent lightbulbs, batteries, and other electronics that are good to keep out of the landfills. My advice to all would be to see what your garbage/recycling provider offers for services and follow through on disposing of your waste the right way.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Share & Voice: Waste Management
Waste Management Recycling
When I was paying my bill for WM this month, I decided to search their website a bit for anything interesting, since I am always looking for new and interesting thoughts related to recycling. I discovered that as the North America's largest recycler, they offer a lot more than just curbside pickup of all the traditional recyclables. They also offer safe disposal options for fluorescent lightbulbs, batteries, and other electronics that are good to keep out of the landfills. My advice to all would be to see what your garbage/recycling provider offers for services and follow through on disposing of your waste the right way.
When I was paying my bill for WM this month, I decided to search their website a bit for anything interesting, since I am always looking for new and interesting thoughts related to recycling. I discovered that as the North America's largest recycler, they offer a lot more than just curbside pickup of all the traditional recyclables. They also offer safe disposal options for fluorescent lightbulbs, batteries, and other electronics that are good to keep out of the landfills. My advice to all would be to see what your garbage/recycling provider offers for services and follow through on disposing of your waste the right way.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Reflections: Week 13-14 & Overall Course
Weeks 13-14:
Over the past two weeks we have done several interesting things to wind down the class including finishing our Advocacy Projects, Eye Opener exercises, and Eco-chic Lifestyle Changes. We also had a show and tell with our junking projects (mine is shown at on the right) and had a chance to tour Goodwill Industries. I realized how important Goodwill is to the communities it inhabits. They provide an excellent place for good to be recycled or donated, with the money going to help the communities. They also provide a lot of jobs for people of all abilities. My junking project involved recycling old beer bottles into new drinking glasses. I had a lot of compliments on them from the people I showed, and I will be doing more of these in the future.
Overall Course:
Overall there are things that we learn in this class that will affect far more than our academic lives. Of all of the classes I have taken at UMD, this is the one that I feel will affect my day to day life more than any of the others. This class has changed the way I look at waste, recyclables, the food I eat, and the way business works. I found it really interesting to see how the food industry operates. I found it to be very shocking to find that a patent can be put on life when we watched the documentary focusing on the court cases of Monsanto. Or how the bottled water industry works on the 'Tapped' documentary about water mining and bottle pollution. The book I read for Read 'n' Seed, The Omnivore's Dilemma, was a good read that helped me understand how the food industry does work, and how I feel it should work. As I said in the opening sentence to this summary, I know that what I have learned in this course will not soon be forgotten. This class has taught life skills that will help me for many years to come.
Overall Course:
Overall there are things that we learn in this class that will affect far more than our academic lives. Of all of the classes I have taken at UMD, this is the one that I feel will affect my day to day life more than any of the others. This class has changed the way I look at waste, recyclables, the food I eat, and the way business works. I found it really interesting to see how the food industry operates. I found it to be very shocking to find that a patent can be put on life when we watched the documentary focusing on the court cases of Monsanto. Or how the bottled water industry works on the 'Tapped' documentary about water mining and bottle pollution. The book I read for Read 'n' Seed, The Omnivore's Dilemma, was a good read that helped me understand how the food industry does work, and how I feel it should work. As I said in the opening sentence to this summary, I know that what I have learned in this course will not soon be forgotten. This class has taught life skills that will help me for many years to come.
Share & Voice: How to cut a beer bottle to make a glass
Recently I made a project for a class that had to involve junking. For my project I decided to use some old beer bottles I hadn't yet recycled, and tried a project I read about in Men's Health Magazine this summer. The project works like this:
- Tie a string around your bottle
- Remove tied string
- Dip your string in lighter fluid (or another flammable fluid)
- Put string back around the bottle
- Light string on fire, turning bottle to make sure all of the string catches on fire
- Just before the fire dies out dunk the bottle into cold water while pulling apart.
- Sand sharp edges of bottle for safety
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Share & Voice: Recycle More Minnesota
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Eye Opener: Online Learning Activities
JD @ Earth and Me JD
JD asked us to fill out a crossword puzzle that had answers related towards helping the environment. The answers were:
Matt @ Matt's Smoke Free Zone
Matt has linked us up to a game that feeds you glass shard freeze pops. I fed the characters as much as I could. Even when it was wrong to do so. The first level I scored 30... pretty bad. The next level I tried to do well, and scored 810. So I think the more glass you eat, the better! (nooooot!)
Sam @ Sustainability with Sam
I took Sam's linked quiz on asthma and scored 3/5. I know there are things I need to learn about it, not just for this but because I was diagnosed with it a few years ago after an extreme illness. One important thing I learned was that dust can be a cause. I will be dusting my room tonight.
Kristen @ Kristen's Atmosphere
Kristen had three linked videos to her post. The first was a parody of the Brady Bunch introduction where the parents, when introduced, are smiling and holding cigarettes, and blow the smoke into the kids' screens. It also talked about what the children were suffering from because of this.
Second video was the most disturbing to me. The part that stood out most was when the fat was squeezed from the artery. I'll never be a smoker, but if I ever had wanted to I think that image will stop me from ever trying it.
The third video showed what happened when a person sucked all the tar out of 400 cigarettes and boiled the tar water down to show exactly how much tar is in cigarettes.
Carly @ Go Blue Too
The link for the 'Are You Food Savvy?' link was not working. But there was another quiz you could take asking questions about how to store food which I found interesting and reminded me of when I took nutrition class many years ago. For someone who routinely lets food get close to expiration date, I found a lot of this information useful.
JD asked us to fill out a crossword puzzle that had answers related towards helping the environment. The answers were:
- Across:
- 2 - Reduce
- 3
- 5 - Junking
- 6 - Bus
- Down
- 1 - Recycling
- 2 - Reuse
- 4
Matt @ Matt's Smoke Free Zone
Matt has linked us up to a game that feeds you glass shard freeze pops. I fed the characters as much as I could. Even when it was wrong to do so. The first level I scored 30... pretty bad. The next level I tried to do well, and scored 810. So I think the more glass you eat, the better! (nooooot!)
Sam @ Sustainability with Sam
I took Sam's linked quiz on asthma and scored 3/5. I know there are things I need to learn about it, not just for this but because I was diagnosed with it a few years ago after an extreme illness. One important thing I learned was that dust can be a cause. I will be dusting my room tonight.
Kristen @ Kristen's Atmosphere
Kristen had three linked videos to her post. The first was a parody of the Brady Bunch introduction where the parents, when introduced, are smiling and holding cigarettes, and blow the smoke into the kids' screens. It also talked about what the children were suffering from because of this.
Second video was the most disturbing to me. The part that stood out most was when the fat was squeezed from the artery. I'll never be a smoker, but if I ever had wanted to I think that image will stop me from ever trying it.
The third video showed what happened when a person sucked all the tar out of 400 cigarettes and boiled the tar water down to show exactly how much tar is in cigarettes.
Carly @ Go Blue Too
The link for the 'Are You Food Savvy?' link was not working. But there was another quiz you could take asking questions about how to store food which I found interesting and reminded me of when I took nutrition class many years ago. For someone who routinely lets food get close to expiration date, I found a lot of this information useful.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Advocacy Project: Duluth Oil Spill
Topic Background:
Can you imagine how the Lake Superior region would be affected if it were to be struck with a catastrophe similar to the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill? Who would be affected? What business' would be affected? What wildlife would be affected? These are all real questions that have been asked in the gulf region over the last 6 months. The purpose of this exercise is to bring the magnitude of this environmental disaster home.To be clear, the tourism and economy dependent on our region varies from the gulf region's, but many lives will be affected none the less. In this TIME magazine article you can see the affect that the BP Oil Spill is having on the economy of the gulf states. Duluth's economy is more dependent on tourism than you would think. 3.5 million visitors each year contribute more than $400 million to the local economy. If we faced the kind of decline in our tourism numbers that the gulf states face, you can likely cut those numbers in half.
Assignment:
What I want you to do, is try and put yourself in their shoes. Think of how your life could be affected by this potential scenario. Please write a short essay including your perspective on the following:
- How it would affect your job
- How it would affect your friends/family member's jobs
- How it would affect the places you like to go and activities you like to do
- What do you think the national perception of Duluth would be? Would they still want to vacation in the area?
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change 5: Final Weekly Review & Overall Project Reflection
Week 5:
My SMART goal was: I will eat three organic fruits vegetables each day. Overall, I succeeded in my attempt to find more balance in my diet, although I didn't meet my goal exactly how I would have liked, I did learn a lot about new healthy eating habits for myself.
The biggest challenge for myself was time. Over the last month, I think I am busier than I have ever been in school. Having two high demand classes, as well as two internships, finding time to go home and eat was not easy. I learned new ways to help fight against this by bringing a snack to work with me to help reach my goal. The biggest success I have had was learning that there are foods and markets out there that have yet to be explored by me. I have always enjoyed making sandwiches, but now I have started putting lettuce and tomatoes on them. I think it is an acquired taste because I never really liked it before, but now find it enjoyable.
I felt really good whenever I made it to my goal, and even though some times I didn't make it, I didn't get too down on myself. I was making a change in my life that is more likely to happen over a longer period of time. I also felt better eating organic because I now know where my food was coming from, and felt a lot better about what I was putting back in to the environment.
This week I have learned that to be successful, you need to be meticulous in your preparation, and that goes for eating too. The people who eat the healthiest are most likely the same people who will plan their meals out at least a day in advance, instead of waiting until hunger strikes and eating the easiest thing to make.
For the future, I plan on making this short term goal a life goal. I have felt better about what I eat, as well as physically and mentally. I really like the variety I have added over the last several weeks, and fully intend on keeping it a part of my day to day life.
Review:
My SMART goal was: I will eat three organic fruits or vegetables each day for 10 weeks. Overall, I succeeded three of the of the weeks while falling short two of the weeks. I was never that far off of my goal, so I never felt the need to amend it in any way. I felt like it was realistic and practical, and would serve me well. I was right on all of those thoughts.
The things that helped me be successful was at the beginning, when I had went and bought plenty of food. The things that made it hard to be successful was having little or no time to eat during the day, or needing to go to the store to buy more. For the future, I have decided I just need to plan my eating patterns a day or two in advance, rather than wait until I am hungry and then look for something to eat.
I benefited from this project with my body. I feel like I am eating healthier than I ever have at any point in my life, and it is a lifestyle change that I intend to keep. I learned that this is something I enjoy, and that will help me live healthier and more productive in the future, because I feel better than I have before.
I feel like the environment benefited from this goal because I am eating more organic and locally grown products, thus cutting down on the cost of transport for the product. And although it is more expensive, I am happy to help make the environment healthier too due to less chemicals being used to produce food.
To conclude, I will definitely be keeping this goal as a lifestyle choice from now on. It has made me feel better about what I eat, and about myself. To me, there is no downside to this change. There is a slight economic one, but as long as I am able to afford it, I will love to eat this way. I would strongly encourage anyone else considering a change similar to this to do so. You will not regret it. You have nothing to lose, and everything to gain.
My SMART goal was: I will eat three organic fruits vegetables each day. Overall, I succeeded in my attempt to find more balance in my diet, although I didn't meet my goal exactly how I would have liked, I did learn a lot about new healthy eating habits for myself.
The biggest challenge for myself was time. Over the last month, I think I am busier than I have ever been in school. Having two high demand classes, as well as two internships, finding time to go home and eat was not easy. I learned new ways to help fight against this by bringing a snack to work with me to help reach my goal. The biggest success I have had was learning that there are foods and markets out there that have yet to be explored by me. I have always enjoyed making sandwiches, but now I have started putting lettuce and tomatoes on them. I think it is an acquired taste because I never really liked it before, but now find it enjoyable.
I felt really good whenever I made it to my goal, and even though some times I didn't make it, I didn't get too down on myself. I was making a change in my life that is more likely to happen over a longer period of time. I also felt better eating organic because I now know where my food was coming from, and felt a lot better about what I was putting back in to the environment.
This week I have learned that to be successful, you need to be meticulous in your preparation, and that goes for eating too. The people who eat the healthiest are most likely the same people who will plan their meals out at least a day in advance, instead of waiting until hunger strikes and eating the easiest thing to make.
For the future, I plan on making this short term goal a life goal. I have felt better about what I eat, as well as physically and mentally. I really like the variety I have added over the last several weeks, and fully intend on keeping it a part of my day to day life.
Review:
My SMART goal was: I will eat three organic fruits or vegetables each day for 10 weeks. Overall, I succeeded three of the of the weeks while falling short two of the weeks. I was never that far off of my goal, so I never felt the need to amend it in any way. I felt like it was realistic and practical, and would serve me well. I was right on all of those thoughts.
The things that helped me be successful was at the beginning, when I had went and bought plenty of food. The things that made it hard to be successful was having little or no time to eat during the day, or needing to go to the store to buy more. For the future, I have decided I just need to plan my eating patterns a day or two in advance, rather than wait until I am hungry and then look for something to eat.
I benefited from this project with my body. I feel like I am eating healthier than I ever have at any point in my life, and it is a lifestyle change that I intend to keep. I learned that this is something I enjoy, and that will help me live healthier and more productive in the future, because I feel better than I have before.
I feel like the environment benefited from this goal because I am eating more organic and locally grown products, thus cutting down on the cost of transport for the product. And although it is more expensive, I am happy to help make the environment healthier too due to less chemicals being used to produce food.
To conclude, I will definitely be keeping this goal as a lifestyle choice from now on. It has made me feel better about what I eat, and about myself. To me, there is no downside to this change. There is a slight economic one, but as long as I am able to afford it, I will love to eat this way. I would strongly encourage anyone else considering a change similar to this to do so. You will not regret it. You have nothing to lose, and everything to gain.
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