Coalition of North American Zoos and Aquariums

Plastic Free Ecochallenge 2023

July 1 - July 31, 2023

Kaity Knutson

Team Stingray

POINTS TOTAL

0 TODAY
0 THIS WEEK
830 TOTAL

participant impact

UP TO

1.0

community event

hosted or attended
UP TO

3.0

public officials or leaders

contacted
UP TO

2.0

conversations

with people
UP TO

1.0

documentary

watched
UP TO

260

minutes

spent learning

Kaity's 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 0
DAILY ACTIONS

Community

Give Some Green Gratitude

I will give a shout-out on social media to a local company, coworker, friend or family member for their plastic free or green efforts.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Community

Advocate For Better Food Packaging

I will advocate for alternatives to single use packaging at local grocery stores, markets, or work.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Community

Write Letters, Emails or Sign Petitions

I will write or sign 3 letters, emails or petitions per day to advocate for plastic-free or planet-friendly policies.

COMPLETED 1
DAILY 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

Follow the Chasing Arrows

The chasing arrows symbol we associate with recycling doesn't always actually mean something is recyclable. I will spend at least 30 minutes learning the different meanings the symbol can have.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Kitchen

Minimize Packaging

I will purchase food items with the least amount of packaging.

COMPLETED 2
DAILY ACTIONS

Study

Learn about Plastic Production

Plastic production, not just disposal, pollutes communities and harms people. I will learn about the impacts of plastic production on humans, animals, communities, and the environment.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Study

Dig into Bioplastics

I will spend at least 60 minutes researching the impacts of bioplastics and how to properly dispose of them in my city, and I will share this information with 5 friends, family, and/or colleagues.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Community

Tour A Waste Management Facility

I will spend at least 30 minute(s) touring (virtually or in person) a local dump/transfer station, material recovery facility, and/or landfill to learn about our local waste and waste recovery streams.

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 60 minutes learning about the history of single-use plastics and how it became ubiquitous in our daily lives.

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

Study

Numbers Everywhere

The numbers #1-7 on plastics tell us a lot - and can help us be better recyclers. I will learn what these numbers mean and which types of plastics are accepted for recycling in my area.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Community

Learn about Environmental Justice

Using the action resource links below, my family will spend 60 minutes learning about environmental justice, causes of environmental injustice, and how plastic waste disproportionately impacts already vulnerable communities.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Community

Research Local Waste Sites

I will spend 60 minutes finding out where landfills and/or toxic waste sites are situated in my region and which communities are most impacted by these sites.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Community

Host a Watch Party

I will host a watch party with friends and/or colleagues to watch and discuss a movie about plastics.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Participant Feed

REFLECTION QUESTION
Community

How does hosting a watch party help you to get to know your guests, connect them to the cause you are focusing on, and build your community?
Kaity Knutson 7/31/2023 6:15 PM
I haven't hosted a watch party persay, but I have shared a lot of documentaries with my close friends and family. Kiss the Ground is my favorite one for its much more optimistic tone compared to other documentaries, but I also like the Broken and Rotten docuseries to show systemic issues in different parts of society.

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Community

Landfills and recycling centers tell us a lot about our communities and purchasing habits. What did you glean from your tour?
Kaity Knutson 7/31/2023 6:10 PM
I think it's fascinating how different cities like San Diego and New York handle all their different types of waste. I've been learning more about the different facilities around Fort Wayne just from being a homeowner with a lot of extra junk from previous occupants that I want to dispose of properly. We're lucky that Fort Wayne has a decent infrastructure to handle our waste and that organizations like ACDEM create resources to help our community.

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Community

In what neighborhoods or areas of your region are landfills or other waste sites located? Which communities are most affected by these locations?
Kaity Knutson 7/31/2023 5:41 PM
I actually visited the landfill the other week and was surprised how close it was to Eagle Marsh. It seems very out of the way to have an impact on people. However, when I used the EPA's ESJScreen tool, it showed that air pollution and other negative environmental effects clearly affected the low-income areas of the city more than other areas.

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Community

What did you and your family learn about environmental justice? What questions came up for you? What feelings?
Kaity Knutson 7/31/2023 5:32 PM
Like most systems in societies, the environments that people live in are inherently unfair due to old (and still existing) policy decisions. I hope as cities like Fort Wayne continue to expand, they looks into ways to care not just for the environment, but also all the people that live in it.

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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?
Kaity Knutson 7/31/2023 4:53 PM
Plastic is a truly amazing material that deserves to be respected as something more than just disposable. I hope that we get to the point where no one thinks in terms of single-use anymore and always strives to have reusable on hand.

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Study

What did you learn about bioplastic production and disposal? Did anything surprise you? Are bioplastics accepted by your city's waste management?
Kaity Knutson 7/31/2023 1:52 PM
Bioplastics are at a basic level just plastics made from biological sources instead of petroleum. Some of them are chemically-indistinguishable from regular plastics while others have the potential to degrade faster when properly disposed of (composted in industrial settings). I think bioplastics have their place and finding alternatives to petroleum-based materials and ingredients allows our country to be less reliant on oil imports and will give us more options in the future when the world's petroleum reserves run out. However, I think reducing our reliance on plastic in any form will help us more in the long run. Our city doesn't explicitly say whether they take bioplastics or not, but I know that Dirt Wain and Ground Down both accept certified-compostable bioplastics in their paid composting services.

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Study

Recycling right requires both systemic change and personal and community awareness. How can you expand what you've learned about the chasing arrows symbol to encourage broader changes in your community?
Kaity Knutson 7/31/2023 1:14 PM
I really liked the video by the Alliance of Mission-Based Recyclers and the solutions that they listed. I think encouraging companies and governments at every level to make labeling more clear and make packaging easier to recycle. We can do our best as individuals, but at the end of the day, the change has to come from all the stages of the plastic lifecycle that comes before us.

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Study

What did you learn about how plastic production impacts humans, animals, communities, and the environment? Which of these impacts specifically affects your community?
Kaity Knutson 7/31/2023 12:43 PM
Plastic production has a massive impact on human and environmental health at every stage. Our community is likely affected the most by the post-consumer stages of the plastic lifestyle, both from plastic pollution and chemicals in the air from incineration.

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Kitchen

With the added mindfulness of reducing your packaging, what have you noticed about the amount and type of single use plastics used for packaging when you shop in the grocery store?
Kaity Knutson 7/31/2023 12:33 PM
It's amazing how much plastic packaging infiltrates the grocery store. For example, the movie theater box-style Skittles have a little plastic bag inside them while Mike and Ikes don't. I make an effort to buy the apples I bring for lunch from Costco because they package their apples in cardboard boxes!

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Community

How might thinking creatively help us address big systems problems - like plastic pollution - differently?
Kaity Knutson 7/13/2023 5:29 PM
Clearly, our current systems are not effective at reducing climate change and addressing other environmental issues. Even though we may not feel like we can do a lot as individuals, by showing our support to organizations that are trying to find better solutions, we can enact changes that go even further than replacing disposable items or using natural cleaners (of course, keep doing those things too!)

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