Earth Week Garbage Sort

During Earth Week, I had the opportunity to participate on a campus Garbage Sort. After learning about what specific materials go in compost, recycling, or landfill, I was shocked to see the amount of contamination in each bag. Recycling and composting is an important step to becoming more sustainable in our practices. However, many people don’t know how to recycle or compost. Personally, I was unaware of where to put what specific items and the myths of recycling. For example, an item containing plastic has an indicator of what plastic type it is (exemplified by a number inside an arrow triangle). Many people assume this means the plastic is recyclable when it indicates what type of plastic it is, and based on the local recycling plant, whether you can or cannot recycle it.

Another issue we found while doing the garbage sort is a large amount of liquids or food in the recycling bin. Unfortunately, when recyclable materials are contaminated with food and liquids many recycling centers will refuse to recycle them. Contamination in paper recycling has become a major issue because food and beverages decompose the paper and it can no longer be recycled and instead must be composted. The contamination of one beverage thrown into the recycling makes the whole bin un-recyclable which is why it is important to dump liquids into a liquids bin, or if the liquids bin is unavailable, flush the liquid in the toilet or down a drain.

 It’s also important to know that many receipts including the University of Washington Bothell parking receipts contain BPA (Disphenol A). This organic syntmanyhetic compound has been known to have many harmful effects on people and the environment. So where do these receipts belong then? Unfortunately, the receipts cannot be recycled nor composted so they must go to landfill where they will be buried in many layers of trash and dirt. Although sorting through peoples’ trash isn’t the most fun Earth Week Event to attend, I feel like I learned very important sustainability skills which have helped myself and the environment.

After the event when Professor Rebecca Rivera weighed and totaled the percent of contamination in each bag I was shocked by the large percent of material that is in the wrong bag. There are many different types of packaging and compound material items it is hard to keep track of what is recycle, compost, or landfill. Therefore, participating in the event really helped me have hands on knowledge about the importance and complexity in recycling and composting. Luckily before the Garbage Sort my class had a quiz on sorting garbage so I was prepared. Even with learning many students including myself still weren’t sure on certain items like straws and dirty napkins. Thanks to the help of Cassie and Alexa in the Sustainability Office explaining why what goes where myself and many students have a deeper understanding of the process in recycling and composting. Do you know how to properly sort waste? Chances are, you are sorting some things wrong. 

Promoting isn't easy!

(DRAFT) Blog Post #2

 

     Jasmine Velasquez again! Here to tell you about my CBLR experience. I was so nervous to go to my orientation because I did not know what to expect or what I would be doing. At the orientation there was a lot said that had to be done for Earth Week, but I knew I could do it. After all, it was awesome experiencing my first internship at the Sustainability Office with Cassie and Alexa. Throughout I learned a lot, from doing a garbage sort with a class to learning how to create posters using Canva (online design website). I created my first poster for the Food Forest event where students were invited to go and plant a variety of different vegetables.

(This was the poster)

      During the promotional event for Earth Week, my poster was one of the posters that were picked up by students the most. At this event, it was a lot of advertising for each event that would be going on during Earth Week. It was difficult because to begin with there weren’t many students and it was raining. Having tea, coffee, and hot chocolate helped us because students started coming towards our table and we were able to promote each event. After talking to a few students it became a lot easier for me to interact with other students. As a result, this was really beneficial because a lot of students visited our Sustainability Office booth.

 

This was my CBLR experience, stay tuned to see what other CBLR students did!

Reduce, Reuse, Rethink your impact

    Hi, I am Jasmine Velasquez and I am an Earth Week CBLR Students in the Sustainability Office this quarter. During Earth Week, I attended the Reduce, Reuse, and Recreate event that was held in the lower level of the ARC on campus and had a great time creating sustainable cleaning supplies, and making handy bags out of t-shirts. It is shocking how just creating your own environmentally safe cleaning product can have a positive impact to the earth. Personally, whenever I do cleaning around the house I use plenty of Clorox, and other harmful chemicals to our environment. I have noticed people get so used to using the products they are comfortable and are unwilling to change their habits, which includes myself. After this event, I realized how much clothing I store in bags and boxes, when I could be donating them, or making little useful handbags for paperwork, supplies, or makeup. It is the little things and individual can do that can make a very big impact towards our earth.

    In order to make a positive impact on the earth I am going to work on the unsustainable habits I do on a daily basis. For example, not leaving the water running while brushing my teeth, or not leaving my appliances plugged in when not in use. Even if it seems to be a short amount of time it is still a significant amount of water being wasted. I also want to add some new sustainable habits to my daily life, such as shopping locally, using reusable shopping bags, and possibly planting my own garden. I know it is going to take effort to be able to do this but I know I can achieve it. Every single time I go grocery shopping I get tons of plastic bags to put my groceries in. That is really unnecessary because I could just buy a few reusable bags that I can reuse every time I go grocery shopping. 

I plan to make these changes and improve my sustainability practices in my personal life. Will you do the same?

My Virtual Journey Through Climate Change

During this CBLR program, we were asked to attend one sustainability-related event. I chose Martha Groom’s movie screening event because first off, the title of that movie sounded really appealing to me, and second, I am a cinematographer so I like movies in general. The movie I attended was called “How to Let Go of the World and Love All The Things Climate Can't Change” by an Oscar-nominated director named Josh Fox. It was deeply personal for him. He talked about how he decided to travel the world to Africa, South America, Asia, Oceania and much more after the hurricane Sandy hit New York in 2012, to investigate what climate change has done and its consequences. The movie was a little bit more than 2 hours long, but it didn’t feel like it because all of the overwhelming truth about the current condition of the environment kept coming in and surprised me.

I went in hoping it would be a cheerful documentary, but it was not. Half way through the movie, there was a footage of how Chinese people can’t open their windows due to too much pollution but the government is trying to cover it up. Later on, Josh shared a story about a Pacific Islander who couldn’t find his father’s grave near the shore because of sea level rise. All of the visuals and information are really thought provoking. It makes me think that everyone who Josh documented was from different political, racial and economic backgrounds, and they also were dealing with different problems. And all of the problems come from one cause only: climate change due to industrialization. The movie has changed my outlook on environmental issues. I guess that we have to be more aware of our impact on the environment because the consequences would not only harm us as a local community but also on a national and international scale.