Coalition of North American Zoos and Aquariums

Plastic Free Ecochallenge 2019

July 1 - July 31, 2019

SuLi Sabo

Monterey Bay Aquarium

POINTS TOTAL

0 TODAY
0 THIS WEEK
1,065 TOTAL

participant impact

UP TO

1.0

community event

hosted or attended
UP TO

44

disposable cups

not sent to the landfill
UP TO

9.0

zero-waste meals

consumed
UP TO

100

pieces of litter

picked up
UP TO

1.0

conversation

with a person
UP TO

12

plastic containers

not sent to the landfill
UP TO

1.0

waste audit

conducted

SuLi's actions

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

Keep My Community Clean

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

COMPLETED 10
DAILY ACTIONS

Food

Cook a Zero-Plastic Waste Meal

I will prepare 3 meal(s) at home each day without using any items packaged in single-use plastic.

COMPLETED 3
DAILY ACTIONS

Food

Use Reusable Bags

I will not accept any disposable bags when making purchases, including produce bags.

COMPLETED 12
DAILY ACTIONS

Food

Buy Unpackaged Produce

I will purchase produce items without plastic packaging.

COMPLETED 6
DAILY ACTIONS

Food

Advocate For More Food Packaging Options

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

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Food

Use a Reusable Mug / Collapsible Cup

I will avoid sending 2 disposable cup(s) to the landfill per day by using a reusable mug or bringing my own collapsible cup.

COMPLETED 22
DAILY ACTIONS

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

Lifestyle

Travel Smart

If traveling, I will bring my own plastic free items (water bottle, grocery bags, collapsible food containers, utensils, straws, etc.) with me.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Personal Care

Pearly Whites

I will purchase toothpaste in an aluminum tube or in a glass jar or make my own!

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Personal Care

Brusha Brusha Brusha

I will replace my plastic toothbrush with a bamboo toothbrush.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Community

Share My Actions

I will make my environmental actions visible by posting to my social media networks.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

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

What did you learn about the waste you create? Where can you reduce the most?
SuLi Sabo 7/27/2019 10:49 PM
Took a good look at my most recently filled recycling bin which was couple days ago. There were a few pieces of plastic and the rest were cardboard boxes, paper envelopes that came in the mail and 2 egg cartons. The plastic pieces came from some glass food jars that were sealed with strips of plastic around the metal lids. There was a plastic bag from a loaf of bread, 2 plastic caps from 2 oat milk cartons and 6 aluminum soda cans. I can see I am far from zero waste living. In order to reduce more, I have to change even more of my habits as consumer when buying foods and things I use to plastic free packaging.

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- Diana Guerrero 7/29/2019 11:08 AM
  Plastic is so widespread it is crazy. Even on the plastic windows of envelopes! Kudos for the progress.
  
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SuLi Sabo 7/22/2019 9:11 PM
It is so encouraging to find an ice cream shop in our local community serving in house handcrafted ice cream in many different flavors! The biggest win is they offer only reusable baby metal spoons for taste testing and not single-use plastic ones! To go spoons and cups are biodegradable! I enjoyed my ice cream with pride!

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- Stephanie Flaniken 7/25/2019 10:38 PM
  And the shop makes such delicious ice cream!! Bouquet! Yum!
  
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SuLi Sabo 7/18/2019 9:34 AM
Dental floss is a must for me and they normally come packaged in little single-use plastic boxes wrapped in plastic packaging. I'd like to share with you these two I've been using that are refillable, compostable and recyclable. Happy to have found these!

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Community

How does the act of picking up litter connect you more to your community?
SuLi Sabo 7/16/2019 10:47 PM
Picking up litter on my walk to and from work is part of my routine and sadly, it is not difficult for me to end up with way more than 10 pieces. Summer time litter on the ground increases due to increased number of visitors.

I absolutely feel proud to be part of my community and often see individuals and groups of volunteers cleaning and pruning our beautiful city. By doing my part, I feel responsibility as well as helping these volunteers keep our city clean and attractive. For whatever amount of litter we all picked up, we know we prevented them from ending up in our waterways and into the nearby ocean!

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SuLi Sabo 7/15/2019 11:50 AM
My challenge at the regular grocery store yesterday was satisfactory. The photo depicts my purchases. As mentioned in my earlier post, I love tofu I couldn't resist plus it's good for me! In the photo there's no meat....yup, I can do without meat (I'm not vegetarian) but I'm fortunate to be working at the aquarium where I can get my meat if I crave them. The aquarium Cafe offers only sustainable and freshest, local ingredients sourced from Monterey Bay and the Central Valley.

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- SuLi Sabo 7/15/2019 12:35 PM
  I forgot to mention, non of the produce came wrapped in single-use plastic...that's a real score!
  
  Read More
SuLi Sabo 7/14/2019 12:09 AM
Once upon a time, I did not even twitch when tossing out trash. These days, I question every piece of my trash, especially single-use plastic trash. EcoChallenge has made me think even harder whenever I bring something home......
- do I simply want that or do I really need that?
- if an item cannot be recycled nor reused - I will make the choice not to accept it if it's a gift, and not to buy it if it's at the store.
By intentionally asking myself those questions, I find myself having less and less trash especially single-use plastic. I have an 18 gallon trash can and used to take it out once every week. This is now reduced to once every 3 weeks. It is work in progress and I approach the challenge like an adventure. Staying focus and making the challenge fun also helps me a lot.
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REFLECTION QUESTION
Community

How does working with others to clean up your community make you feel?
SuLi Sabo 7/11/2019 10:54 PM
Today was beach clean up day organized by my work place (SSA@MBA). My colleague and I partnered and spent 30 minutes picking up trash at the beach and public sidewalks. It is sad to find the things we found which could be been easily dropped into garbage bins instead of on the ground! However, it was a good feeling that I helped prevent some of these trash from potentially find their way into our precious Ocean which is only a stone throw away from where we found all the trash!

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Food

Single use plastics have become normalized in our society to the point that most people don't see them as a problem. What would you say to a friend, colleague, or family member who may not understand why these disposables are an issue?
SuLi Sabo 7/10/2019 10:55 PM
In simple words, I'll explain how bad single use plastics are to the environment and to wild lives and that they take up to 1000 years to decompose. Majority end up in landfills and only a mere 2% is effectively recycled. The rest which are called "leakage", they make their way into our waterways and into the Ocean which eventually will be mistaken as food by the ocean animals and killing them. I will particularly point out many of these ocean lives form part of our human food chain which means we end up eating the fish along with the single-use plastics we previously tossed. Hopefully my friends and family members will digest my explanation and minimize or ditch single-use plastics.

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Community

In what ways is social media an effective tool for sharing your values?
SuLi Sabo 7/09/2019 9:52 PM
Social media has definitely helped me change my own personal ways of living. Just like many, I never knew how harmful single-use plastic can be and shamefullyI was a big contributor to the mounts of plastic trash in the landfills and probably those in our precious Ocean. Because of social medias, as well as through my work place Monterey Bay Aquarium, I am now so much more aware of the danger of single-use plastic and have adopted the habits of refuse, reduce, reuse and recycle. Social media is a highly effective tool for me to learn and influence others, and I can see it serves the same way to everyone out there.

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Personal Care

Currently most of the packaging for toothpaste is plastic. How can you advocate for more alternatives through your purchasing power and influence in community?
SuLi Sabo 7/08/2019 1:12 PM
This was another long time challenge for me when purchasing toothpaste from grocery stores until I found an all natural toothpowder online about a year ago. Very effective product but powder was a little messy. My search continued and recently came across one called Bite from Los Angeles, California! They are tiny tablets that come in a cute little glass bottles with metal lids. From ingredients down to mailing packaging...there's nothing I dislike about this product so far! And not to mention the convenience for travelers! I have shared my findings on social media, family and friends at work and now I share with you all the good stuff of this product:

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