Emily Heathcock

Reid Park Zoo

"Educate others how to live fully with less!"

POINTS TOTAL

0 TODAY
0 THIS WEEK
395 TOTAL

participant impact

UP TO

100

minutes

spent learning
UP TO

70

pieces of litter

picked up
UP TO

1.0

documentary

watched
UP TO

5.0

plastic containers

not sent to the landfill
UP TO

1.0

waste audit

conducted

Emily's actions

Community

Estimate Your Plastic Consumption and Go #PlasticNeutral

I will visit rePurpose website, complete the 3-minute plastic consumption calculator, and explore how I can reBalance my annual plastic footprint.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Personal Care

Back in the Bowl

I will purchase refillable beauty products.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Personal Care

Pretty oh so Pretty

I will purchase beauty products that are packaged in sustainable packaging.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Community

Keep My Community Clean

I will pick up 10 piece(s) of litter each day.

COMPLETED 7
DAILY ACTIONS

Family

Thoughtful Toys

I will only buy cloth, wooden or plant-based natural rubber toys. Or make our own toys from recycled items found in our home!

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Food

Advocate For More Food Packaging Options

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

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Lifestyle

Watch a Documentary

I will watch a documentary film about waste with family and friends and talk about what we learned.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Lifestyle

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

Family

Discover Together

I will spend 5 minutes educating my family on the basics of living a reduced/no-plastic lifestyle.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Food

Visit the Butcher

I will purchase meats and cheeses from the deli counter or a butcher shop, and use my own containers to do so.

COMPLETED 2
DAILY ACTIONS

Lifestyle

Naked Bins

I will either line my trash cans with repurposed newspaper or paper bags, or I will not line my trash cans at all.

COMPLETED 5
DAILY ACTIONS

Participant Feed

Reflection, encouragement, and relationship building are all important aspects of getting a new habit to stick.
Share thoughts, encourage others, and reinforce positive new habits on the Feed.

To get started, share “your why.” Why did you join the challenge and choose the actions you did?

REFLECTION QUESTION
Lifestyle Naked Bins

Does changing the lining of your waste bin change the kind or amount of trash you produce?

Emily Heathcock 7/11/2019 5:44 PM

I'm just hoping the garbage man will get it all in the back of the truck. Also hoping to only empty our one can once a month. We were up to three weeks before it needed to go out but I know we can do better.

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Personal Care Pretty oh so Pretty

How can you advocate for the importance of reducing packaging to the rest of your friends, family and larger community?

Emily Heathcock 7/10/2019 2:57 PM

I have been sharing plastic free swaps, facts and everything in between on Facebook and Instagram so others can see they have other options aside from living a plastic encased life. Videos of people wading in trash filled waters and other posts where people see specific products that they might use, doing destruction in the environment are very effective. I've had about 4 people tell me my posts have stuck with them and helped them make a small change so I'm excited!
This response is the same in my community where I just walk the walk and am happy to talk to people about my choices. Like at the grocery store where I have my bulk bin bags and then my reuseable bags. I've had someone ask why I don't put my produce in a bag, only to be shocked when I said I was going to wash it anyway so why does it need one. You can see the lightbulb go off during these interactions and it's great!

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Personal Care Back in the Bowl

Why is it so difficult to understand the impacts our purchases and waste have on other people, animals, and places? How might your experience with this challenge impact your future consumption and choices?

Emily Heathcock 7/10/2019 2:46 PM

It's difficult to understand our impact because we aren't seeing the direct result of our choices all day every day. I think the biggest thing I've taken away from reducing plastic is actually that I don't really NEED as much as society says I do. This revelation has led me to cut out quite a bit and plastic reduction is just a wonderful side effect of consuming less.

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Food Visit the Butcher

How has using your own containers impacted the quality of the food you receive? Does this give you more awareness of where your food comes from as opposed to just grabbing a package of mystery origin cheese/meat?

Emily Heathcock 7/10/2019 2:41 PM

I am still fighting certain people behind the counter about using my own containers for my son's lunch meat and cheese but others are starting to recognize me and for them it's no problem. I do notice, however, that I'm going less because it is more expensive. (Probably not a bad thing.)

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Community Estimate Your Plastic Consumption and Go #PlasticNeutral

What did you find out about your plastic consumption by using the calculator? What did or didn't surprise you?

Emily Heathcock 7/10/2019 2:36 PM

I was shocked! I consider myself a fairly plastic light person but according to this I still use half as much plastic as the average American, and only 10% less than the average European. I see the places I still have room to improve so I guess I'll get cracking on it!

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Family Thoughtful Toys

Does your child play differently with natural or repurposed toys than with other toys? If so, how?

Emily Heathcock 7/05/2019 3:01 PM

This was the best space to put it but my son decided it would be better to regift a friend his own toys for a birthday present. No wrapping, just a card, and the kid loved them! He will get so much enjoyment from toys that my son was no longer going to play with and that's a win!

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Lifestyle Watch a Documentary

Which documentary did you choose to watch? What did you learn?

Emily Heathcock 7/05/2019 2:55 PM

Plastic Ocean was eye opening! My son was brought to tears for some of it and even though we live in the desert, no where near the ocean, he's now very motivated to pick up trash whenever he sees it. He will save the sharks!

Read More
- Megan Depper 7/05/2019 4:58 PM
  
  Plastic Ocean was really good! I also really enjoyed Chasing Coral on netflix
  
  Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Lifestyle Complete a Waste Audit

What did you learn about the waste you create? Where can you reduce the most?

Emily Heathcock 7/05/2019 2:53 PM

My household needs to work on reducing waste from art projects as well as calling to reduce junk mail. While we compost and recycle as much as we can these are two areas where reduction would help prevent most of the waste in the first place.

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Family Discover Together

What concerns you the most about how we are affecting the planet? Consider both local and global actions.

Emily Heathcock 7/01/2019 3:24 PM

What concerns me most is the apathy that most people still cling to. Most people don't seem to think it matters what we, as individuals, do and how the choices we make do in fact impact the planet. It's the blatant disregard for our own impact in every way that bothers me more than the continued depletion of our world's resources because it shows that we as a collective are not changing, or aren't changing fast enough. All the atrocities that have come to light because of our collective greed is nothing compared to what is to come if we don't figure out how to change, and do it right now. I know that the more we talk about reducing plastic and living with less and showing others that it can be easy, the better it will get, but its it's still incredibly frustrating to know we are in the minority with such a long way to go.

Read More