Ecochallenge.org

2018 People's Ecochallenge

October 3 - October 24, 2018

Beth Beek Blackford

RECYCLE BREVARD 2018

"Fix the problem, not the blame!"

POINTS TOTAL

0 TODAY
0 THIS WEEK
798 TOTAL

participant impact

UP TO

540

minutes

spent exercising
UP TO

660

minutes

spent learning
UP TO

1.0

waste audit

conducted

Beth's actions

Health

Take Control

Both system and personal sustainability are important! I will develop a plan with my medical professionals to achieve my best health and live my life to the fullest.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Community

Express My Support

I will find out who in my state makes decisions that impact the environment and express my support for more environmental actions.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Health

Exercise Daily

Exercise is a great stress blaster! I will exercise for 30 minute(s) each day.

COMPLETED 18
DAILY ACTIONS

Food

Weekly Meal Planning

I will reduce food waste and save money by planning a weekly menu, only buying the ingredients I need.

COMPLETED 20
DAILY ACTIONS

Food

Plant an Herb Garden

I will plant an herb garden in my home, workplace, or dorm room.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Health

Audit Toxic Cleaning Products in my Home

I will spend 60 minutes researching toxic chemicals found in cleaning supplies and personal care products and remove them from my home.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Food

Try a New Way to Prep

I will try a new method of food preparation, such as canning, pickling, or baking bread.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Waste

Recycle Everything I Can

Contamination prevents what is recyclable from being recycled. I will spend 30 minutes researching and recycling all materials that are accepted by local haulers or drop stations in my community.

COMPLETED 19
DAILY ACTIONS

Waste

Find Local Recycling Depots

I will spend at least 60 minutes finding out where to recycle the recyclable items that I can't put in my curbside bin.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Waste

Personal Waste Audit

I will collect all of my unrecyclable, non-compostable trash to raise my awareness of how much I send to the landfill.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Waste

Visit a Waste Management Facility

I will spend at least 60 minutes visiting a local dump/transfer station, material recovery facility, and/or landfill to learn about the waste stream.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Nature

Tend a Garden

I will tend to a garden each day, or work on starting one.

COMPLETED 10
DAILY ACTIONS

Health

Happiness

I will write down three things every day that I am grateful for, or send one email every day thanking or praising someone.

COMPLETED 13
DAILY ACTIONS

Create Your Own Action

EMBRACE MY PARTNER

I want to deepen the emotional bond between my spouse & me. We've each been highly autonomous during our careers, but with our shift to retirement, we want & need a different kind of reliability from eachother. Several new DAILY rituals will help us love & appreciate eachother more deeply for many years to come.

COMPLETED 19
DAILY ACTIONS

Participant Feed

Reflection, encouragement, and relationship building are all important aspects of getting a new habit to stick.
Share thoughts, encourage others, and reinforce positive new habits on the Feed.

To get started, share “your why.” Why did you join the challenge and choose the actions you did?

Beth Beek Blackford 10/24/2018 8:56 PM

LAST POST - Well, that's it for this year. I didn't complete all my actions, but I made significant progress in establishing some new daily health habits. And now that I am aware, I simply can never go back to using so much disposable stuff, ESPECIALLY plastic.
THANK YOU TO ALL THE ECOCHALLENGE STAFF - SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!!

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Waste Recycle Everything I Can

What have you learned about what is accepted by local haulers for recycling, what you can drop off or ship to certain places, and what is not recyclable in your area? What is the most difficult part of recycling for you?

Beth Beek Blackford 10/24/2018 8:37 PM

On this team we are fortunate to have one of the most knowledgeable people in the county about recycling. Because of her, and her determination to solve the problems we have in recycling locally, I have only a few "problem children", the kind of small plastic items that jam equipment or wash up along the shoreline. Fortunately, TerraCycle has a brigade for such items while we apply pressure to manufacturers to take responsibility for the entire life cycle of their products. Or find other solutions to our needs.

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Food Plant an Herb Garden

Consider the ways you can garden: a plot of land? a patio container? hanging basket? windowsill gardens? What would work best for your living situation and lifestyle?

Beth Beek Blackford 10/24/2018 8:27 PM

A raised bed for a "kitchen garden" would work best for me, and I have already started it. It isn't so large that I get intimidated, and the higher level is much easier on my body!

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Health Exercise Daily

How can you incorporate other personal values (like quality time with friends or spending time in nature) into your exercise routine?

Beth Beek Blackford 10/24/2018 8:22 PM

DAILY EXERCISE - One of my favorite exercise groups was filled with my friends and we all did yoga for an hour together. Then we would spend another hour chatting over lunch! It was the perfect way to spend 2 hours, not daily, but twice a week together and boy did we fix the world!

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Beth Beek Blackford 10/24/2018 8:12 PM

EMBRACE MY PARTNER - It's the little things that can sometimes make a huge difference. Today, for example, I kept coming across Halloween candy, pretending to be Easter eggs, hiding here & there! He knows I love finding eggs, and that I occasionally binge on Twizzlers...

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Food Try a New Way to Prep

Canning and pickling food is a great way to have delicious summer fruits and vegetables all year round. Just make sure to follow the canning and pickling guidelines from the USDA. What are some foods that you would like to preserve and enjoy later in the year?

Beth Beek Blackford 10/24/2018 8:03 PM

FOOD PREP - Personally I do not care for preserved produce. I think flash-frozen fruits & vegetables taste far superior. Home canned meats, on the other hand, are a real treat because all the prep and by-product disposal is done.

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Food Weekly Meal Planning

An average American throws out about 240 lbs of food per year. The average family of four spends $1,500 a year on food that they throw out. Does this surprise you? Where would you rather use this money?

Beth Beek Blackford 10/24/2018 7:47 PM

FOOD-WEEKLY MEAL PLANNING - It does not surprise me that the avg family throws away so much food. We are nowhere near that much waste in our family, & I would (and will) use that money to create a kitchen garden like tomatoes, fresh herbs, green onions, and lemons!

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Beth Beek Blackford 10/22/2018 1:14 PM

WASTE-FIND LOCAL RECYCLING DEPOTS - Okay, I'm taking it to the next level! Recycling isn't nearly as useful as reusing, and as I researched where to take my hard-to-ditch items, I learned that TerraCycle will take a LOT of things I'm putting in my recycling bin. I also wrote an appeal directly to the manufacturer (Proctor & Gamble/Oral-B in this case) to work with TerraCycle to establish a brigade for electric toothbrush replacement heads. Got my reference number handy in case they never write back!

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- Beth Beek Blackford 10/24/2018 7:52 PM
  
  Well they DID write back, and pointed me to P&Gs environmental sustainably webpage. They failed to make a constructive suggestion regarding disposal of replacement brush heads, though. I will keep on it!
  
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Beth Beek Blackford 10/15/2018 8:18 PM

GRATITUDE-I am pretty sure a teammate was completing her daily gratitude challenge by writing me a really nice email, in which she thanked me for roping her into this challenge. The experience has spawned some new ideas for her (as I hoped it would), so keep your eye on WENDY BARNES, one of Brevard Zoo's finest!

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Beth Beek Blackford 10/11/2018 1:40 PM

COMMUNITY - I didn't select this action "I will offer to help (___) person(s) who are in need each day" but after today's experience, maybe I will. Out riding my bike for 30 min of exercise this morning, I passed my neighbor as she walked. I called hello, but something about her reply made me circle back, slow down, and look at her. She'd been crying, and when I asked if she'd rather I leave her alone, she shook her head and then unloaded on me. Thank goodness I've learned the difference between Comforting & Helping! Just kept my mouth shut until she came up for air, asked if it would be okay to give her a hug, & then started with a few questions. Inside of 15 min she had regained her vigor & determination, we'd troubleshot her plan of action, & she'd decided on her next step. Oh, and she was laughing!
Like those bumper stickers that ask "Who Rescued Who", I'm not entirely sure who was in need today, but I am grateful for the gift she gave me.

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- Beth Beek Blackford 10/15/2018 8:22 PM
  
  Kathy Van Metter, thank you! That has been probably THE most important life lesson I've learned!
  
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- Kathy Van Metter 10/13/2018 3:50 AM
  
  I love your comment of knowing the difference between comforting and helping! Sometimes we just need to know that we are heard.
  
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- Beth Beek Blackford 10/11/2018 3:58 PM
  
  Thank you Monica Martin! Awesome team & efforts; maybe I should move to your neighborhood!
  
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- Monica Martin 10/11/2018 1:41 PM
  
  What a beautiful post from someone with a beautiful soul. Wish you were my neighbor!
  
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