Coalition of North American Zoos and Aquariums

Plastic Free Ecochallenge 2023

July 1 - July 31, 2023

Kate Byrd

South Carolina Aquarium

POINTS TOTAL

0 TODAY
0 THIS WEEK
680 TOTAL

participant impact

UP TO

1.0

community event

hosted or attended
UP TO

3.0

conversations

with people
UP TO

2.0

plastic containers

not sent to the landfill
UP TO

130

minutes

spent learning
UP TO

1.0

waste audit

conducted

Kate 's actions

Bathroom

Travel Toiletries

If traveling, I will reuse my old travel tubes to refill with my soaps or only bring bar soaps with me.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Kitchen

Travel Eating

If traveling, I will bring my own snacks and meals in my own containers to avoid the waste of take-out containers.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Bathroom

Homemade or Refillable Cleaners

I will make my own cleaning products or choose plastic-free, refillable options.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Community

Join a Cleanup Effort

I will host or participate in a beach, highway, river, or other cleanup effort in my community.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Community

Share My Actions

I will make my environmental actions visible by sharing about them on my social media networks and the Plastic Free Ecochallenge participant feed.

COMPLETED 3
DAILY ACTIONS

Bedroom

Eco Detergent

I will use laundry detergent that is packaged in glass or aluminum, or an alternative like soap nuts.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Bedroom

Practice Sustainable Fashion

I will spend 20 minutes learning about the costs of fast fashion and begin trying to practice sustainable fashion in my own life.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Study

Estimate Your Ecological Footprint

I will calculate my ecological footprint, and from the results brainstorm and take action on ways I can reduce my annual footprint.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Study

Plastic History Buff

Single-use plastics are everywhere, but that wasn't always the case. I will spend at least 30 minutes learning about the history of single-use plastics and how it became ubiquitous in our daily lives.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Study

Complete a Waste Audit

I will conduct a waste audit - including recyclables and compost - to understand how much waste I create and where I can reduce the most.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Kitchen

Try a New Recipe

I will try new recipe(s) or food preparation method(s) each day, such as canning, pickling, making yogurt, or baking granola bars or bread.

COMPLETED 0
DAILY ACTIONS

Kitchen

Cook a Plastic Free Meal

I will prepare meals at home each day without using any items packaged in single-use plastic.

COMPLETED 1
DAILY ACTION

Participant Feed

REFLECTION QUESTION
Study

What did you learn about your ecological footprint by using the calculator? What did or didn't surprise you? What are some ways you will take action to reduce your footprint?
Kate Byrd 7/30/2023 6:28 PM
My footprint was 2.4, about half that of those in the USA. I’ve done the calculator before and my footprint drops each time. I can drop it even more by continuing to reduce waste, supporting local, and reducing the amount I use the car.

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Community

Have you noticed a difference in how your community, friends, and family members use plastics since you've shared your own actions?
Kate Byrd 7/30/2023 6:06 PM
My family has become much more conscious of using reusable bottles and bags instead of single-use and I have friends and colleagues who have also made the switch because of conversations we’ve had.

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Study

What did you learn about the waste you create? Where can you reduce the most?
Kate Byrd 7/30/2023 6:03 PM
Most of my waste is different kinds of plastic food wrappings and film. I reuse as many bags as possible (bread, wraps, frozen fruit) and am doing my best to eliminate the amount coming in by using fresh fruits and vegetables instead of frozen. That’s definitely easier in the summer!

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Study

How has learning about the history of single-use plastic shifted your mindset on plastics and their function within society?
Kate Byrd 7/29/2023 4:05 AM
I didn’t realize that the development of plastics started so long ago! My first awareness of plastic was when I was a young child. My older brother was in charge of burning the household trash and he delighted in burning bread bags. He’d hold the bread bag over the fire and we’d watch it drip, drip, drip as the bag disappeared. I can’t think how many dangerous chemicals we breathed in.
I grew up in a household with thrifty parents and grew up with those thrifty values so I never jumped on the single-use plastic train as quickly or as often as many in the world have. But single-use plastics were definitely a part of my life. Even still, I tended to reuse or refuse single-use plastics as much as possible—I have been washing and reusing ziplock bags since the early 90’s and until I switched to reusable bags in 2004 I preferred paper grocery bags over plastic because they were sturdier and held more. As I’ve become more aware of how single-use plastics have been marketed in the form of convenience I’ve switched to things such as bar shampoo, laundry strips, powdered detergents, and cooking more from scratch.
While plastics may have a function in society, especially in the medical field, the proliferation of plastics will continue until people and communities become aware of the true expense and curb or stop the flow.

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Bedroom

How can you express your personality, creativity, and values in ways that don't require fast fashion or buying more clothes and accessories?
Kate Byrd 7/27/2023 2:57 AM
I completed the ThredUp Fashion Footprint calculator and was not surprised to find that my footprint is 80% lower than the average consumer. Not using shopping as a form of entertainment definitely helps because I don’t enjoy it. I’d much rather spend my free time in the outdoors or volunteering for organizations that share my core beliefs.
Being creative helps to keep the clothes I have last longer and most of them come from being conservation-conscious: washing in cold water, not dry-cleaning clothes, and air-drying and mending clothes as much as possible,

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Bedroom

Was this an easy or difficult swap for you to make? Did you have any concerns before making the swap?
Kate Byrd 7/21/2023 11:37 AM
I went with laundry strips and it wasn’t a difficult swap at all. My husband has been using them for several years and I had switched to powdered. There was a little plastic scoop, though, that gave me some angst. So I went ahead and made the switch.

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Kitchen

Was this action easy or difficult to do? How did it change your travel experience?
Kate Byrd 7/14/2023 11:50 AM
This action gets much easier with practice. The longer I have been aware of the plastics problem the less I eat in restaurants that use plastics and I often take most of my food when I’m traveling. It takes a certain amount of creativity and thinking outside the box but it’s definitely doable!

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- Jennie Gilbert 7/14/2023 5:55 PM
  You go girl :) So great to have had you in the 'Burg! Comrades in conservation! A joy it is to know you :)
  
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REFLECTION QUESTION
Community

How does working with others to clean up your community make you feel?
Kate Byrd 7/14/2023 11:37 AM
Working with like-minded folks to clean up an area is always a good thing! And it’s always interesting to see how different areas can have such different kinds of litter. Which is why it’s important to track litter data because data can be a powerful tool in helping to develop solutions for reducing trash. The Litter Journal is a great way to track individual and group litter sweeps anywhere in the world ( https://www.anecdata.org/projects/view/122 ).

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Bathroom

What did you learn by making your own cleaning products? What is the biggest difference in making vs buying?
Kate Byrd 7/14/2023 11:23 AM
I actually haven’t bought cleaning products in a many years because I was offered cleaning products from a relative’s house when they moved to assisted living. But the supply is gone so I was glad to see what I could make that was plastic-free. I settled on vinegar and water which cleaned and deodorized very well. I used a hefty sprinkle of baking soda on my sinks and bathtub when I needed some extra scrubbing power. I’ve found that the vinegar smell dissipates pretty quickly but a drop or two of some kind of essential oil might make it smell less vinegary

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Bathroom

What is the benefit of using bar soaps or refilling your travel sized containers? Is this an action you think you will keep in your life?
Kate Byrd 7/01/2023 6:18 AM
I’ve been traveling for a couple of weeks and brought my bar soap and shampoo with me. I had a travel-sized container that I filled with sunscreen.

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