challenge – Simple Ways to Change the World

America's Effort, Global Impact, Individual Change

The Last Straw!

March 16, 2018 Taylor Houghton

Straw’s Suck…LITERALLY!!!

Image result for no straw please

This week I heard about about not using plastic straws. They started campaigns called The Last Straw or No Straw Please, which I thought was very clever! I have always been one to not use a straw if I didn’t have to. I’m glad the rest of the world is finally taking notice as well!

Disposable straws are not recyclable. I actually told some of my friends this and they were surprised and didn’t know this. They often end up in landfills, oceans or our environment! According to the National Park Service, Americans throw away a half a billion straws everyday! That’s insane! It is insane to think that a tiny little piece of plastic could have such a big impact on our Earth. It is also crazy to not realize how many times you use a straw! Eight million tons of plastic enter our marine environments every year! They say by 2050 there will be more plastic then there is fish! These fish are also eating these plastic materials! This matter because we eat fish! I eat fish! This means were eating plastic! We are killing ourselves!

Image result for plastic straws in the ocean

CNN tells us that the average American uses two plastic straws a day, “Every day, Americans throw away 500 million plastic straws, enough to circle the Earth twice, or fill 125 school buses. That means the average American uses over 35,000 of them in a lifetime.” Image result for turtle and plastic straw

The movement started in 2011 by nine-year-old boy named Milo Cress. His campaign was called Be Straw Free. It started when he went to restaurants and they gave him a straw without him even asking. He really didn’t need one and they gave him one without asking! He started going to local restaurants and asking them to not give anyone straws unless they ask. Those restaurants reported that they used 50% less straws!

Image result for restaurants saying no to straws

This campaign, however, started in our very own Seattle. The campaign saved over 2.3 million plastic straws in as little of three months! Restaurants are switching to paper straws. The city is even looking into having an official ban on straws and plastic utensils!

I’m not asking you to stop using straws. I simply asking you to not use plastic straws! There are other alternatives like reusable glass, stainless steel, copper, bamboo, and several other kinds of reusable straws. I challenge you to go straw free for a full week! I am asking you to make the switch and say no to plastic straws!!

Image result for alternatives to plastic straws

Check out this video!

America's Effort, Global Impact, Individual Change

11 Facts about Recycling

March 8, 2018March 16, 2018 Taylor Houghton

On a previous blog post I talked about what can and cannot be recycled. I can across this neat website! They gave such interesting facts about recycling I had to share!!

11 Facts about Recycling:

The average person generates over 4 pounds of trash every day and about 1.5 tons of solid waste per year.
Americans make more than 200 million tons of garbage each year, enough to fill Busch Stadium from top to bottom twice a day. Next time you’re at a sporting event or tailgate, host a trash-free tailgate using only recyclable materials sign up for Trash-Free Tailgate.
The EPA estimates that 75% of the American waste stream is recyclable, but we only recycle about 30% of it.
We generate 21.5 million tons of food waste each year. If we composted that food, it would reduce the same amount of greenhouse gas as taking 2 million cars off the road.
Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to listen to a full album on your iPod. Recycling 100 cans could light your bedroom for two whole weeks. Sign up for 5 Cans Challenge to save energy and show off your creative side.
The Container Recycling Institute (CRI) estimates that the 36 billion aluminum cans land filled last year had a scrap value of more than $600 million.
Americans throw away about 28 billion bottles and jars every year.
Over 87% of Americans have access to curbside or drop-off paper recycling programs.
In 2009, Americans threw away almost 9 million tons of glass. That could fill enough tractor trailers to stretch from NYC to LA (and back!).
In 2010, paper recycling had increased over 89% since 1990.
A glass container can go from a recycling bin to a store shelf in as few as 30 days.

Be the change! Recycle! This may be something small that you are doing but it makes a BIG difference!!!

The link is below:

https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-recycling

America's Effort, Individual Change, Uncategorized

Update on Pescetarian Diet

March 8, 2018 Taylor Houghton

The Pescetarian Diet:

In my last post I talked about how I was going to try the pescetarian diet. If you don’t remember, the pescetarian diet is when you are pretty much a vegetation but you still eat seafood for the omega 3’s. For the entire month of February I tried new recipes and stayed true to my values. I am going to be honest… I had one slip up. It was after a late night outing, one of of my friends made pizza rolls. I ate two pizza rolls which contained meat. I wasn’t all there in my head but I am sad that that was the only factor that caused me not to be meat free. I am happy to say that I enjoyed the diet and will continue to follow through with it.

There are two things that I think I might try but I’m not sure yet. I might want to have meat once a month in case I want to go back to my normal ways. Going vegetation could mess up your digestive system if you go without meat for a certain amount of time and then all of sudden try to bring it back. Your digestive system gets used to not having meat. I have also heard of a weekday vegetation. Image result for eating less meat This means during the week you continue to follow through with not eating meat but on the weekends you are allowed to have meat. This still follows my same values. You are still helping the environment, you are reducing your meat consumption, and it is a lot more healthier than eating meat everyday. It is something I am going to think of. One top of that, I still do enjoy some meals that contain meat. That is why with the weekday veggie or once a month meat eater, you can still enjoy that. I also don’t like to be an inconvenience for people. Not everyone provides a veggie option.

Somethings I learned while trying to go pescetarian:

It is not as hard as you think. When you do try it, make sure you don’t have any meat in your house because it could cause some temptations. Talk to people who support and talk about the struggles. I have also found out that it is not the meat that I love so much.

Image result for eating less meat

It is the seasoning. There is a substitute for almost everything. All you need to do is find a substitute for the meat or meal you are making and add that same seasonings. It also always taste very similar if not better in my opinion.

One example that I can think of is tacos. I love tacos but I can’t eat ground beef. A way I found to make this work was to use beans instead of meat. I am not talking about deep fried beans but actual beans like pinto or black beans. I then added tacos seasoning to the beans and a little bit a lemon and it was amazing! Of course I had cheese and tomatoes as well! Literally, I enjoy the tacos just as much as I did before and feel a little bit better about it as well. You just have to be creative. Image result for beans

I have also tried a lot of new fish recipes. I have never had fish until I came to college. My mom doesn’t like it so it wasn’t something that was never cooked in my house. I have actually have grown a real love for fish and have now cooked it often.

One struggle I had was when the weather was nice, my friends had a cook out. They grilled up hamburgers. The hamburgers smelled and looked so good. I held my ground and didn’t have one although I wanted one. Later I found a substitute for hamburgers although I have not tried it yet. I am excited to see how that turns out.

I still challenge you to try the pescetarian diet, you might actually really enjoy it and it might change your life!! Good luck!