Community Team

I enjoy doing these challenges, as they always give me new ideas and make me think on ways to reduce waste.

The calculator was not super helpful. It had a category called other which is very hard to estimate. Recently we bought new furniture and the amount of plastic involved was shocking. To go zero or near zero plastic in the US is nearly impossible without some major changes in the packaging industry.

I have enjoyed the challenge as a great learning opportunity. While I have always tried to reduce my "waste" - I have learned about new opportunities and tried new things that work. Some has come from the posts that participants have posted.

I buy multivitamins, fish oil etc quite regularly and they come in plastic containers that get recycled. Today I searched for alternatives and found that I can buy them in a refillable bag and use my own container. It is still plastic, but I can recycle it with Ridwell and it less plastic than what they come in usually. I also bought more at...

I had a fabulous conversation a week ago or so with the Starbucks drive-thru worker who told me that they have a new way to give you your drink without using one of their cups. They now make your drink in one of their pourers and then simply pour it into your own vessel in the drive thru. They then wash that out for the next customer. I brought...

I actually made/sewed a number of "Swiffer dusters" using some scraps of polar fleece that I had around. I gave a few of them to friends and family and had people ask me for more. It's easy to make the "Swiffer Sweepers" and polar fleece works great for those, too.

growing vegetables will be a new challenge for me as I learn when to plant, how to care for them, keeping the 4-legged pests away and then learning when to harvest. I am excited to try this out as I normally only grow flowers.

I actually bought some mesh produce bags and now carry them with me along with my reusable grocery bags. It was easier than I originally thought!

It's difficult to reduce plastic use. I like that this challenge makes me think more about what I'm using. Even if I can change my habits just a little, I feel it will eventually add up.

I discovered today that Crayola has a program called ColorCycle where they will take back all brands of plastic markers (think dry erase and highlighters!). If you collect the dead markers, they will send you a free shipping label and you can ship them to be recycled.