Eye Opener: Photo Essay

    For this project, I searched all over a college campus to find out all the ways that they are trying to be sustainable and eco-friendly. I found many things, which is great! Here I will show you a few pictures of what I saw...

Water saving toilet in the on-campus apartments 

Friendly reminders to turn off the light when you leave the room

Recycling bins located all over campus in addition to the small ones near trash cans

Places where you can safely get rid of your old electronics

High speed hand dryers to reduce paper waste

In this bathroom the lights are motion-sensory, so they help save electricity by not leaving the light on constantly

The library uses sustainable paper for all their reciepts

All across campus there are solar-powered compacting garbage cans

Eye Opener: Junk on the Brain

   For this weeks eye opener, I used Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary and Wikipedia to define some words...

• Antique: "a product from an earlier time"
• Junk: "something of little meaning/worth/significance"
• Flea Market: "an open-air market for second hand articles and antiques"
• Thrift Shop: "a shop that sells secondhand articles"
• Upcycling: "converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of a better quality or higher environmental value"
• Resale Shop: "a local, seconhand thrift store"

These terms above have a lot to do with environmental health. These things can all be reused and recycled into new things or shared among people to not buy so much new things and use the old ones in a new way.  The terms above can be found in many local places. To pick Duluth, MN as an area, you can find these items from these terms at...

• Antique Shop: Father Time Antiques on 395 S Lake Ave #1, or call (218) 625 - 2379
• Junk Dealer: Chesney Auto Salvage located at 6250 Bear River Road or call (218) 206 - 8713
• Flea Market: Beaver Bay Flea Market off Hwy 61 just as you get into Beaver Bay. 
• Thrift Shop: Goodwill located at 4883 Miller Trunk Hwy, or call (218) 727 - 0001
• Upcycling: Cut Loose Creations on 2420 East 6th Street, or call (218) 724 - 5761
• Resale Shop: Plato's Closet located at 5115 Burning Tree Road #315 C, or call (218) 733 - 9455e

Get Your Junk On...
   I visited Junk Market Style online and found some really cool things that were reused into something new. Three of the coolest things I foud were...

            Fun Fall Inspired Bracelet - the creator took old rhinestones and charms and compiled them into one beautiful bracelet. This is so appealing to me because it is something anyone can do with old charms from a second hand shop.

Fun Fall Inspired Bracelet

           Today...It's All About The Gourd - the creator of this project took gourds and made them into a lovely floral arrangement. It is cool to me because it would look great on a table at Thanksgiving or anytime during fall to really make your home festive.       

Today...It's All About The Gourd

       Twig Chandelier - the creator of this twig chandelier did an amazing job and is my favorite by far! The took twigs and bent and tied them together in a chandelier shape and then spray painted it. This is my favorite because once it is finished and hung up, it looks so simple and effortlessly beautiful. It would really add something to any room.     

Twig Chandelier

 

Eye Opener: Environmental Working Group and CoverGirl

   For this eye opener, I digged into the mascara I use: CoverGirl's Professional Remarkable Mascara. I went to the website for Skin Deep Cosmetic Database and entered in the mascara I use. What I found was shocking...a 7 out of 10 was alloted to my mascara...not good.

   On a scale of low, moderate, or high, the "overall hazard" for my CoverGirl Mascara was moderately high, the "allergies and immunotoxicity" was high, and the "use restirctions" was moderate, with the overal health concern being high. Overall, I found out that my is not very safe to use.

http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/product/159521/CoverGirl_Professional_Remarkable_Mascara%2C_Very_Black_200/     

   For my thoughts on this, it is alarming. I have heard before that CoverGirl can be unsafe, and I think that I will stop using CoverGirl products. I don't want to get sick just from my choice of makeup. It's definitely time for a new makeup brand.              

Eye Opener Week 2

After doing the Eating Green calculator, I found out that I use 0.5 acres of grain and grass for animal feed, 0.2 pounds of pesticides to grow the feed, 18.6 pounds of fertilizer to grow animal feed, and that I 2854 pounds of manure created by the animals I eat. These numbers are only for 1 week of my diet, and I barely eat any meat; it is mostly eggs that upped this calculator. These numbers for the week added out to be 338 calories.

After clicking on the button to help improve my diet and environment, I chose to not reduce any of the servings I had previously entered. I chose this because I barely eat meat as it is, and I cannot reduce that number because I need to protein and nutrients that come from meat. I aso chose to not reduce my dairy intake because I am lactose intolerant and only have about a cup of milk a day with my cereal, so I cannot reduce this any more than it already is, and milk is a vital ingredient in many recipes. These two factors made me hesitant to take the pledge since there is really nothing I can do to help them, but I will definitely do my best.

To me, this all helped me realize that I never think where my food comes from other than the grocery store shelves. When I go home for the summer, I eat at least half my food from my garden, but living in an apartment in Duluth for the school year I do not have an opportunity to grow a garden. If there are any more farmers markets before the winter hits I will definitely purchase food from them, and do whatever I can to eat locally (within my budget range).

                                                            http://www.mirchiblog.com/vegetable-garden.html

Eye Opener Week 1

http://www.carbonindependent.org/ told me that I am a medium carbon foot person [while at home]. I drive the average amount and do not eat that much organic food, but I do compost as much as I can. After seeing this, I realize that I need to use less waste. I am going to try to not eat out as much, or only eat at restaurants where they use reusable things (like washable dishes).

Welcome to Hannah's Eco Safari!

Welcome to Hannah's Eco Safari!

My name is Hannah and I will be taking you through a journey to help yourself become more environmentally aware. This blog will show you how to reuse, reduce, and recycle, as well as becoming aware of environmental issues.


There are 5 possible types of posts on my blog. They include:

1. Advocacy Project
2. Eye Openers
3. Reflections
4. Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change
5. Share and Voice

If you notice at the bottom of this post, the categories will be listed as labels. This post is has been labeled with all five kinds of posts. You will also see the number of each kind of post in my Labels Gadget at the top of the page. All post titles from now on will begin with one of the categories above.

The Members of my blog are...
    1.  http://tropicalenvironmentswithnikij.blogspot.com/
    2.  http://ruthannesraindrops.blogspot.com/
    3.  http://totheboundarywaterswithjohn.blogspot.com/
    4.  http://enviro-surfingwithamyandkristen.blogspot.com/ 

You can also follow my blog by clicking "Follow this Blog" in the gadget column. You can see my complete profile and all the blogs I am following by clicking on "See Complete Profile." (Make sure all these gadgets are in place).

I hope you all have fun taking this Environmental Adventure with me!
   - Hannah