I am in the fifth week of this project and thought today would be a good day to do a recap of what I have already done and any updates on what I have done since. Here is an overview:
Week 1: Online Knowledge
During the first week, I found all sorts of awesome sites like My Zero Waste and Franke James. Since then, I have slowly been adding to my green site repertoire and have found some really neat websites like Little Homestead in the City and Tap It. I am continuing my progress and every week I find new sites about every topic. This week I even found a site completely devoted to shutting NASCAR down. Let me know if you have any great sites for me to follow!
Week 2: Stop Junk Mail
During the second week, my task was to learn about junk mail and do my best to get them to stop sending it. I learned that 100 million trees are cut down every year just for junk mail and over 40% of that goes straight into the garbage. I have taken steps to remove myself from the lists, but I think this is going to be a marathon rather than a sprint. I have used the template I created several times. I think the junk mail is slowing and I am continuing to follow up with companies, but the effects might take a while. The part that REALLY torked me off was that I removed myself from receiving phone books, the respective companies contacted me and told me I was off of their list, then within 2 weeks I received 2 phone books from the very same companies. I have followed up with them further, wrote a letter to our local paper (has not been published yet), sent this topic to a local radio personality that I hope he will cover and been generally ornery on the topic.
Week 3: Saving Water
I learned this week that I would needlessly waste well over 100,000 gallons of water in my life if I continued what I was doing. I learned some super easy ways to save 54 gallons of water on any given day. So far, I think this challenge has caused the most dramatic daily change I have made so far. I used to take 2 baths every day. Now I only shower or bathe once a day.
Week 4: Food Waste
I learned quite a bit last week. I learned that food waste creates a large amount of methane, which is far worse than CO2 as far as greenhouse gases go. We can help reduce the greenhouse gases by better using or planning food/meals, donate what we not use, or compost food waste. I also was exposed to Freeganism, which still
Food Bank with Marcia Paulson
fascinates me. I was fortunate enough to be able to speak with our local Solid Waste Utility Manager and he schooled me on the awesome things Fargo is doing to reduce waste and reuse energy.
I also learned about the food bank and what is happening locally to help recover and redistribute food that would otherwise go to waste. Ashley and I were fortunate enough to take a tour of the Lutheran Social Services Food Bank headquarters which is shown in the pictures. Marcia Paulson, Director of Marketing and Development, showed us around the warehouse and helped show us the great things they are doing for the people of our state and area (in addition to helping with the environment). Paulson pointed out that they work with over 50 restaurants, grocery stores, hospitals, colleges, and bakeries to help recover food. One chain of grocery stores alone, Hornbacher’s, provided over 100,000 pounds of food last year PER STORE. Although the Food Bank is doing some really great things, Paulson indicated that there is always ways to improve.
Visit to the Food Bank and the huge shelves of food
Not only have Ashley and I become more aware of our food waste, I think we have become more aware of the process and what is going on in our community. We just volunteered to help out at the food bank and will update you all when that happens. In this case, going green has other implications.
Summary
It has been a really cool month and I appreciate everybody that has stopped by to take a look. If you have any comments, suggestions or questions… leave them in the comments area below.
It sounds like you have learned a lot. Congrats!
I remember cutting back on water was the hardest for me. Going from 2 long showers a day down to 1 short fast shower was a big adjustment.
Congratulations! Youv’e come a long way in such a short time. It’s a big transition. Thank you for taking us along for the ride (so far) I have even learned from what you have done so far. I can’t wait to see whats next!