Within the last couple of weeks I managed to cut down of my recyclables by almost 50%.  I would say I accomplish my goal of cutting down my single-use plastics and recycling from the previous update. I cut out all plastics and instead went for glass jars, with the exception of my almond milk and a package I received (which isn’t totally my fault). Additionally, I did some research on how to better approach a zero-waste lifestyle. I watched some videos of people who are zero waste, and investigated how I could do this living in cluster, and in Victoria. The first place I thought to go to was the zero-waste emporium on Douglas street in downtown Victoria. They provide many accessible options for people to adopt zero waste, from reusable fabric bags for bulked goods and soaps with no packaging. Additionally, my sustainability CL did a seminar on how to make reusable beeswax wraps which I have put to good use. In conclusion, even though I had a crazy amount of work to do for school, adopting this zero-waste ideal was very efficient and not very difficult to accomplish.

Going green shouldn’t be this hard. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxKfpt70rLI

Longest, M., Clay, C., & Tossers, T. (2019). A Beginner’s Guide To Zero Waste Living (It Doesn’t Happen Overnight). Retrieved from http://trashisfortossers.com/a-beginners-guide-to-zero-waste-living-ps-it-doesnt-happen-overnight/

Zero Waste Victoria BC | Zero Waste Emporium. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.zerowasteemporium.com

 

Counting and consciously reducing my recyclables has allowed me to be more aware of the amount of waste I am creating overall, as well as given me the inspiration to ask more questions surrounding food based packaging and look for other alternatives. As I had suspected from last week, I was unable to  decrease the total amount of plastics from the second check in. I had 9 pieces of plastic in total, 2 of which were plastic almond milk containers, 2 of them were glass containers (one for peanut butter, one for maple syrup), one metal can used for coconut milk and 4 pieces of paper from one of my classes. I have completely stopped buying beans or other legumes in metal cans, as buying them in bulk is much cheaper and I can flavor them as I’d like while reducing the amount of recyclables I create. As I mentioned in mu past updates I am going to drop all of the glass containers off at Zero Waste Emporium, because they have a place where you can drop off containers so they can be reused by others.

This project has been quite difficult to achieve as it has taken a level of convenience out of my life, but doing research for the debates on singe use plastics has helped change my mind a little bit on the topic, an really give me more motivation behind why this project is important. As far as research goes for the final project, I have found several sources that expand on how plastics and the recycling process isn’t the best for our planet, and I plan on doing more research into impacts on an individual scale to compare my consumption habits both before and after reduction. I also plan on using some of the sources from the debate to bulk up my background knowledge and research.

 

The picture above shows the amount of waste I produced over the past week and a half. As seen, I greatly reduced the amount of recyclables accumulated and it was primarily due to slightly adjusting the products that I use and consume. It is fair to say that it will take a lot longer than six weeks to go completely waste free, especially on a university campus, but it was a still a successful start. This clearly shows that on an individual level each person can, to some extent, take initiative to cut down on the plastic items that they use on a daily basis. It is essential that each person starts contributing to the reduction of plastics as “more than 8 million tons of plastics are dumped in our oceans every year” (The Facts). Our fundamental goal should be to reduce the amount of harmful plastic waste entering our natural spaces (particularly marine environments) and work towards healthy solutions to clearing the plastics already threatening the environment.

 

I hope to see a change in the way that Uvic students and staff deal with recycled waste, particularly plastics. In many college campuses in the United States and across Canada, students are pushing for a plastic free campus. Recently, two students at the University of British Columbia’s department for zoology pitched for a plastic-free campus in order to prevent the waste from the school entering the nearby waterways. One of the students said that ”  …we need to move away from using plastics all together and really focus on reducing plastic use and replacing that with alternatives,” (CBC). Alternatives which largely funded universities such as Uvic can buy into. As I stated before, one small step will have a large affect. I think that if more students make the choice to persuade the university to buy into an idea such as this, then the school will be on track to helping not only reduce the amount of annual waste produced but also helping on a more international scale help keep the oceans clean. Overall, this project brought about much needed awareness as many students, myself included, are not always as aware of how much waste we can generate. I was able to visually see how much plastics that I go through and positively see a decline as I made conscious choices to avoid products that were made from these harmful materials. The more awareness, the more push there will be!

 

Resources

 

 

Over the past two weeks, I have been working on diminishing my plastic and aluminum can usage. As the picture above indicates, I have only 4 plastic items and 4 aluminum cans. Though this is a big jump for myself, in the next two weeks, I hope to see close to zero of both plastics and aluminum cans. For paper, I have mostly the essentials (besides the Tim Horton wrappers). Milk is a big part of my diet and so are eggs.  I have stopped using paper in class for note taking and I am now taking all my notes on my laptop.

Reducing my plastic use is the most import challenge for me. As my debate paper stated, plastic in the wild severely impacts wildlife in the ocean and on land. When we use plastic, it usually ends up in the landfill where it is buried underground. However, there is some pieces of plastic that don’t make to the landfill which ultimately ends up in the ocean where it can be consumed by wildlife and move up through the food chain. By 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than there is fish if we keep continuing on this path. Even though reducing my plastic usage is a minor detail in the effort to help preserve the environment, I want to do all I can to help.

In two weeks, I hope to have 0 aluminum cans and plastic items. For paper, I hope to get rid of all the non essential items such as the Tim Hortons wrapper. I have used 13 items in the last two weeks and if I am successful in eliminating the unnecessary items, plastic, and cans, I could get to as low as 5 items which is beyond any expectations I had at the start of this project.

 

Refrences

Parker, L. (2018, December 20). A whopping 91% of plastic isn’t recycled. Retrieved from https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/07/plastic-produced-recycling-waste-ocean-trash-debris-environment/

Benefits of Reducing Paper Use. (May 30th, 2017). Retrieved from http://fairreporters.net/science/benefits-of-reducing-paper-use/

World Animal Protection. (2017, November 17). How plastic pollution is affecting seals and other marine life. Retrieved from https://www.worldanimalprotection.ca/news/how-plastic-pollution-affecting-seals-and-other-marine-life

This week, my progression hasn’t been as strong as I intended. While I still made a 25% reduction in my paper consumption, I’ve used 40% more cardboard, used the same amount of plastic, I’ve used the same amount of tin cans, and I’ve also added one glass bottle.

Some of these items were either leftover from before I committed to this project, such as the tea box (which I have since only bought in bulk), two of my plastics, the hospital wristbands, were from the last update that I forgot to add, and my prescriptions come with excess packaging that I can’t avoid.

This project proved to be challenging in many regards, largely because of the extra money it takes to buy foods in bulk, or the time it takes to make things from scratch to avoid recyclables. However, I have learned many things and become more aware of my consumption habits.

I am still actively trying to reduce my recyclables but in order to reduce my consumption from the number it is right now, I believe that I would likely need to be more financially stable. So until then, I am still trying to make conscious decisions about when and how I purchase recyclables. For example, instead of buying 1L or 2L tetra packs of almond milk, I choose to buy a larger 4L plastic container. Tetra packs contain paperboard, aluminum, and polyethene, making it difficult to separate and reuse (Anaya 2018). Plastic is still environmentally degrading and can be difficult to reuse, however, I believe that since I am buying a larger amount, I will ultimately use less raw materials, which reduces my overall impact.

Additionally, while I, unfortunately, did not get the time to experiment with this during this project, I do hope to explore the option of dried beans. I have been deterred from trying this due to lack of time and poor planning. Dried beans require either a) an instant pot (which I cannot afford) or b) about six hours to rehydrate. I often do not plan my meals much before I cook them so trying to use dried beans has not been an option for me yet. However, to help reduce my can recyclables in the future, I am going to practice meal prepping and planning ahead so I can soak dried beans and have them prepared for when I cook.

Finally, while I have not met all the goals I set out for at the beginning and during this project, it has still forced me to reduce my recyclable impact and look critically at my consumption habits. I hope to continue to reduce my impact and find new, creative ways to reuse the recyclables I do produce. Overall, this has been a very great experience for me.

 

Anaya, L. (2018). The Tetra Pak Versus Plastic & Glass Containers. Retrieved from https://draftingutopia.com/2018/04/19/the-tetra-pak-versus-plastic-glass-containers/

As seen in the picture above, I have significantly reduced the amount of paper I used during the past two weeks. It only took me a couple of weeks to mildly adjust my paper waste as well as plastic waste. Although it is almost impossible for us to completely stop using these two products, it is very attainable to significantly decrease the amount we use and if every person was able to decrease their number of recyclables, we would see a huge positive change. It is important that we adjust our use of these products because on average it takes 350 litres of water to transport a ton of papers. In addition, a ton of paper requires the removal of 24 trees in our environment (Benefits of Reducing Paper Use, 2017). As for single use plastics, it takes 22 gallons of water to make one pound of plastic (The Hidden Water in Everyday Products, 2018).  In a study done by the University of Victoria, paper towels were the largest contributor to our paper waste at UVIC . Improvements have been made such as the removal of paper towel in some of the resident building such as the one I am currently living in.

As for plastics, I am still working on diminishing the amount I use. In the years to come, I hope to buy my own blender because as seen in the picture above, a large portion of my recyclables comes from smoothie containers. I have also stopped buying tissue boxes which contain both paper and plastic. At UVIC, plastic materials account for 12.4% of our waste and is it estimated that 84.4 tonnes of plastic materials will be sent to the landfill every year from the University of Victoria   (Green Squad, 2011). Many of the plastic products at UVIC could be packaged using reusable plates and/or compostable materials. This however, can become very expensive and difficult to transition over to, but if nothing is done, we will continue creating excessive amounts of waste.

Sources:

Benefits of Reducing Paper Use. (May 30th, 2017). Retrieved from http://fairreporters.net/science/benefits-of-reducing-paper-use/

The Hidden Water in Everyday Products. (2018, December 13). Retrieved from https://www.watercalculator.org/water-use/the-hidden-water-in-everyday-products/

URL: https://www.uvic.ca/facilities/assets/docs/UVic-waste-assessment-report.pdf

 

 

 

Over the past several weeks, I have significantly decreased the amount of recyclables that I have accumulated. I found that I greatly decreased my reliance on plastics and paper products due to my increased usage of  my own Tupperware containers and reusable water bottles to store food and water in. Below is a table of the total amount of different recyclables I have collected over the past few weeks. I find it interesting yet not surprising that the more I used my own containers the less I have had to rely on using recyclables such as paper plates and plastic utensils.

I found it best to purchase items with minimal packaging and even better when there was no packaging. Not only did this help me to reduce the amount of recyclables but also forced my to purchase items that were fresh and short lasting, ultimately improving the variety and types of food I consumed. For example, I went to Whole Foods to grocery shop and instead of buying rice chips which are primarily packaged in plastic holders, I bought celery and carrot in bulk. This allowed me to eat healthier as well as generate less plastic waste. I also found myself buying more of my necessary food items such as granola, nuts, and dried fruits from the bulk food sections. Buying in bulk allows you to cut away unnecessary plastic waste and in some stores such has the Bulk Barn, allows you to use your own jars and storage containers rather than spending extra money on plastic containers.

After our heated debate on whether Canada should or should not reduce production and usage of single use plastics, I become extremely curious about how much disposable plastics I go through within a two week time frame. I decided to focus on even further reducing the amount of single use plastics. By doing so, I  found myself more aware of how much energy I was saving by avoiding products made from plastics because according PSSI/Stanford Recycling project,  “5,774 Kwh of energy” can be saved if you reduce the amount of plastics you use per week. I also found it bewildering just how many of the products such as face scrubs and conditioner bottles are deemed as single use plastics and how many products that we use on the daily are only meant to use once. Back home my family always reused as much as we could and so I have taken on that challenge to do the same for the last two weeks of this project as well as until I move out of residence in mid April. Going forward, I plan to continue to use my own containers as well as further focus on reducing and eliminating as much single use plastics as possible from my daily life especially since nearly “91% of plastic waste is not recycled” according to National Geographic.It feels good to know that on an individual level, I am helping to slowly but surely decrease the amount of plastics that are continuing to end up in our natural areas. Our university can even help to contribute to the cause by allowing students to bring their own reusable containers to all food places around campus and cutting back on the amount of food items that are sold in plastics containers. I hope that over the next four years here at Uvic, I even could help to implement a terracycling program which would make all university students conscious of the amount of unrecyclable waste on campus.

Resources:

• https://www.bevi.co/blog/zero-waste-universities/
• https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/07/plastic-produced-recycling-waste-ocean-trash-debris-environment/

These last two weeks for me have been a challenge. I am discovering how much harder to avoid recyclables it is than I expected. I made an effort to seek out less packaged items and shop more at bulk stores, however, I was shocked to see some of the prices of bulk, unpackaged items. For example, after using the last box of pasta (shown in picture), I went to the Zero Waste Emporium and was shocked when the pasta I bought was twice the price of what I usually buy and I got less than usual. As a student who lives alone, I have pretty strict financial constraints and all the extra savings count so paying more for basics has been a challenge for me.

Additionally, the last two weeks have come with some surprises. I was emitted to the hospital twice (which probably accumulated its own stack of waste/recyclables that they wouldn’t let me take with me, I’m no Grant), however, this required me to order things to help with recovery, thus accumulating a box for shipping, paper stuffing, and the actual box the product was in. My roommate also gave me some souvenirs from a trip that had a cardboard backing. Later that week, she was also having a rough night and I brought her home some deep fried pickles but I forgot my own Tupperware so I created a to go box. Finally, I didn’t expect to have to pull an all-nighter to catch up on work and studying so I bought an energy drink to help keep me awake, but I realize I should’ve opted out of a canned drink, and ideally drank homemade coffee instead, or at least buy something in a glass bottle that I could more easily reuse. Hindsight is 20/20.

Aside from the aforementioned, I also accumulated a plastic pot, a piece of paper, cardboard and plastic for an earplugs packaging, and a can from chickpeas. Overall, this is still an improvement from the last update. I made a 40% improvement on my paper recycling, about a 30% improvement on cardboard recycling, about a 60% improvement on my plastic consumption, a 50% increase in my consumption of cans, and I did not have any glass this update. I have used 56% fewer recyclables than the last update, which surpasses my goal, despite the struggles, by 26%.

My goal for the next update is to focus on reducing my paper/cardboard consumption in half, as the recycling process of paper is actually more intensive than plastic (McGrath 2018). Paper also uses more water in production than plastic (McGrath 2018). Unfortunately, I do not know how much more I will be able to reduce from there, as many of the items I accumulated this week are not things I normally buy, and most of what I buy does not include packaging because my diet consists of a lot of fruits of veggies which I either buy unpackaged or use reusable produce bags. Additionally, the things that I do regularly buy that come packaged are things that I am not able to afford unpackaged. So to address this, my second goal is to find more ways to reuse the items I recycle so that they are at least given a second life before being recycled.

McGrath, J. (2018). Which is more environmentally friendly: Paper or plastic? Retrieved                     from https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/paper-plastic1.htm

(Sorry this citation isn’t in the correct format with indented lines after the first line, the website will not let me to tab the proceeding lines)

Over the last couple of weeks, I have significantly reduced the amount of recyclables I consume. Before, the bulk of my recyclables were made from metal (aluminum cans) and paper. However in the last 2 weeks, I have only produced 6 metal cans, one glass bottle, and a few cardboard and plastic items. In just 2 weeks, I have produced 11 items less than when I started the project. However, part of that time was spent during reading break in which I did not buy anything (my parents did). This will make it harder to reduce my recyclables next time. The total number of items being 19, it still needs to be lower.

 

To reach my goal of less than 10 items in 2 weeks, I need to cut out 9 items from this pile. However most items here are what I normally eat (except the two pizzas and the juice). I have cut the number of cans I consume in half and almost stopped using paper and plastic packaging, but it still is not enough. There are a few items in this pile that can easily be taken out of my diet, like the pizza, the juice, the glass bottle and most of the cans. However, eggs, milk, butter, and a few other items are an important part of the meals I cook in cluster. If I want to get below ten items of recyclables every 2 weeks, I will need to change up my regular diet and buy food items from places like farmers markets, bring your own packaging food markets, buying in bulk, and other similar places and strategies. Even though it will be more expensive, that is the price I will have to pay to reduce my output of recyclables.

 

The picture below shows the amount of recycling I produced over a three week period (Feb 14^th – March 4^th). I still have a mixture of the same four base categories, but lessened my total from 19 individual pieces to 7. This decrease is much greater than I had originally anticipated, and luckily it worked out well because the last data collection day fell on my grocery shopping day so I was able to focus on buying more things in bulk instead in packaging.  I still ended up using a chickpea can due to it being left over in my cupboard, even though I have now switched to buying dried beans in bulk and cooking them myself. To reduce my paper consumption I have also started making my own veggie burgers out of bulk beans and vegetables so I don’t have to buy them in a package. In the chart it shows I have 2 glass containers while the picture only shows one, this is because I am currently using the other glass jar to hold a bulk item in my cupboard.

Type of recyclable:	Number of items:
Paper	1
Plastics	2
Glass	2
Metal	2

Continuing for the rest of this project I want to try my best to lessen the overall amount of recyclables from here, but ultimately will probably end up maintaining around the amount of recyclables I am creating now. Because I am a student and am on a student budget I would love to be able to afford a large amount of raw almonds to make my own almond milk, or have the funds to purchase a whole coconut instead of canned coconut milk, but right now it is unrealistic for me to purchase those items. In the past I have tried making other types of non-dairy milk at home and it is either quite expensive, or isn’t usable. Reducing my glass containers from maple syrup is tricky also because I haven’t found a storefront that has a returnable program or bulk maple syrup in general, however glass is much easier to reuse time and time again in comparison to plastics. I feel good about the decrease in recyclables that I have managed to achieve in the past three weeks, especially as I have more than halved my collected data with a longer period of time to produce such recyclables.