Delphinium

Friday 21^st, 2010

The challenges I choose to undertake were:

To use less electric lights

To not wear make up

No buying new clothes, only used.

To get no new plastic bags

and

To recycle EVERYTHING I can

As this being my last blog, I have made the executive decision to keep some of my challenges. I don’t care for the whole not wearing makeup thing, because see I love makeup and I think it is a good way to express what you think about yourself. You can enhance things you like, and cover things you don’t. So I don’t feel as though my make up makes a huge impact on the environment and it makes a bigger more important on my life. All though, I do think that I will keep up my recycling and my not getting plastic bags, those are both challenges that don’t impact my life too much because they are simple little changes. I feel like if I do theses few little things for the rest of my life, we make a difference on the environment.

Pansy

Thursday 20^th, 2010

The challenges I choose to undertake were:

To use less electric lights

To not wear make up

No buying new clothes, only used.

To get no new plastic bags

and

To recycle EVERYTHING I can

Today I was an exceptional rule follower. I don’t think I broke a single one of my challenges. I went to the Salvation Army, and hunted through the racks of clothing, and found a dress. That dress could have ended up in a land fill as someone’s trash, but instead it will be a part of my large collection of clothes. I also didn’t get a bag when I purchased it. I have been saving my iced coffee containers every day, and then when I have the car emptying my entire locker full of them into it to be recycled. I have found many things are recyclable that I didn’t know were like hot coffee lids, and some paper bags. I think the recycling everything has been the most rewarding challenge I took on, because it taught me about things I can use for the rest of my life.

Daisy

My post from last night.

Wednesday 19^th, 2010

The challenges I choose to undertake were:

To use less electric lights

To not wear make up

No buying new clothes, only used.

To get no new plastic bags

and

To recycle EVERYTHING I can

I have come up with a final decision. I am officially going to keep two of my challenges for as long as I possibly can, and the other three I will modify to fit my life as well as I can. I think I will keep my no plastic bags and recycling everything. These are both things that have been relatively simple for me to conquer, and without taking too much from my life. They also both help the environment in a very quick and helpful way. The other three I will modify to make them more accessible to my life. Instead of only buying things not tested on animals, I will try my best to not buy things tested on animals, but that won’t always be possible so I will buy things with the lowest impact on the environment, including the packaging and where it was created. I will also instead of not buying new clothes, I will try to limit myself the best I can, and never throw any clothes away, I will always either resell or give a way to Salvation Army. Same with lights, I will do my very best to be cautious of the room I’m in, and if lights could be turned off I will. I think at school we should keep the lights off as much as we can, because the school is a big place and not only would it save energy and help the environment, but it would save money too.

Lily

The challenges I choose to undertake were:

To use less electric lights

To not wear make up

No buying new clothes, only used.

To get no new plastic bags

and

To recycle EVERYTHING I can

This whole project is coming to much less of a hassle and much more just a part of my life. I know I have broken down and not stuck to my challenges perfectly, but I have tried, and succeeded for the most part. Adapting to school in the dark has been very nice, and also quite soothing. I used to get headaches all the time in school, and now I have managed to go through school without a headache, and we are helping the environment. This is something I think the high school at FRCPS should keep up with. It makes learning better and is a little bit of help to the environment.

I noticed when I was out shopping, how many people don’t care to ask for no bag, if they only have one or two new things, and a handful of bags already. They don’t even think, oh I could put this in one of the bags I already have and save some resources. If enough people actually realized this then it would make a difference!

Orchid

Also. from yesterday. no internet is fun.

Monday 17th, 2010

The challenges I choose to undertake were:
To use less electric lights
To not wear make up
No buying new clothes, only used.
To get no new plastic bags
and
To recycle EVERYTHING I can


Over the weekend, I crashed. I went to the mall with my sister and my mom, as we all know shopping is my weakness. Clothes mean everything to me, I take only the best care of them and buying new clothes is my favorite thing to do. I still kept to my no plastic bags, I bought a new purse and instead of my new clothes going in a new plastic bag, I asked if they could all just go in the purse. I know that I will never give up buying new clothes all together but I have come up with a few things I can do to keep my impact down a little.

Ever sense I remember my mom would resell our clothes at consignment shops. Not only would it give us a little extra money, we could then buy used clothes for free. Now I have started doing it, in order to be able to buy even more clothes. I also NEVER throw clothes away, I either go to the Salvation Army and donate them there, or I will bring them to one of the many consignment shops my mom sells to. These both are an asset to the environment because I am not putting them into a landfill and letting them sit. More people should do this, because then consignment shops would have more variety of clothes and more people would be willing to buy and sell used clothes.

Lilacs

No internet makes posting difficult. Here is mine from:
Friday 14th, 2010

The challenges I choose to undertake were:
To use less electric lights
To not wear make up
No buying new clothes, only used.
To get no new plastic bags
and
To recycle EVERYTHING I can

My past few days with the Low Impact Challenge have been fine. I found that recycling everything is a lot easier than I thought. People look at me funny, when I ask them to recycle something for me at Dunkin Donuts. My car is filled with all the different sorts of bottles, in an attempt to recycle everything I can! I think that this will be the one thing I will keep doing after the project is over. It really will make a difference in the environment, and if I do it then maybe other people will do it too. It’s really simple, and I think it can be effective in the long run. When everyone does something, it will make a difference and this is a convenient thing I can intertwine into my life, and make a positive impact on the environment.
Also buying cosmetics not tested on animals has been surprisingly difficult. I ran out of moisturizer, and so I went to CVS to buy some more. The kind I had bought before was tested on animals, and also less expensive. I went through with the PETA, non animal testing list, and the only kind I could find was Burt’s Bees and Alba. I also noticed those were the creams that cost the most. They were almost ten dollars more than my regular kind. I was a good student, and compromised; I bought the low packaging, but tested on animals’ lotion.

petunia

The challenges I choose to undertake were:

To use less electric lights

To not wear make up

No buying new clothes, only used.

To get no new plastic bags

and

To recycle EVERYTHING I can

The low impact challenge has turned out to be much simpler than I had originally thought. I had made the decicion in my head that it was going to be terrible, and i was going to get fed up and stop but it has been nothing of the sort. Yesterday my dad sent me into stop & shop to get a few groceries and as soon as i walked in i had to turn around BECAUSE I FORGOT MY BAGS. But it wasn't a hassle at all. That made me think about how ridiculous people are for not bringing there bags, it took me an extra minute to grab them, and it saved so much waste. :[

Dandelion

The first day of my attempt to be more green has been interesting. The challenges I choose to undertake were:

To use less electric lights

To not wear make up

No buying new clothes, only used.

To get no new plastic bags

and

To recycle EVERYTHING I can

I started my feat last night. I abided by all my rules, i even did my homework in my room completely dark other than my window with the light from the moon, and my computer. I found two dunkin donut's cups in my mom's car, and I brought them in and washed them out in order to recycle them.

This morning was a little more challenging, I decided I could not leave the house without my mascara and eyeshadow, so I am now altering my rule to not buying any new makeup, and all make I buy from now on ever, will be not tested on animals.

I hope that this will be the only change I will have to make. My family already does many of the things a lot of people are changing, we heat with wood, and buy mainly local food. I am excited to see how far I can get, and what kinds of things I think I will keep I'm my life after the project is over.