Holly Parks

"Reinforce replacing plastic with other materials: cloth bags, glass containers, wax wrap instead of plastic. This is harder to do with shopping during the virus but anything I can do is better than not doing anything!"

Points Total

0 Today
0 This Week
1,161 Total

Participant Impact

up to

770

minutes

spent learning
up to

70

plastic containers

not sent to the landfill
up to

101

pieces of plastic cutlery

not sent to the landfill
up to

106

plastic straws

not sent to the landfill

Holly's Actions

Food

Say No to Plastic Bags

If at all possible, I will not accept any disposable bags when making purchases, including produce bags.

COMPLETED 30
DAILY ACTIONS

Food

Make My Own

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 30
DAILY ACTIONS

Food

Plant a Garden

I will plant a herb or vegetable garden in my home, workplace, dorm room, or community garden.

Completed
One-Time Action

Food

Use Reusable Utensils

I will keep 2 plastic cutlery out of the landfill per day by using my own reusable cutlery.

COMPLETED 31
DAILY ACTIONS

Food

Skip the Straw

I will keep 1 plastic straw(s) out of the landfill per day by refusing straws or using my own glass/metal straw.

COMPLETED 31
DAILY ACTIONS

Feed

Holly Parks 7/21/2020 4:57 PM

I have found so many really good recipes (and a few I didn’t care for). I spend time cutting servings down to one person and try to avoid ones that call for more of an ingredient than I can use before it spoils. But baking has become my obsession, especially sourdough recipes. I can always freeze any excess.

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Holly Parks 7/14/2020 2:35 PM

Well, my garden is going to bury me in eggplant. Much as I like it, I don’t want to eat it everyday. And I can see the next wave coming: the bush honeysuckle is loaded with blooms. I need to get photos of the bees pollinating it.

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- Deborah Kim (Ecochallenge.org Staff) 7/16/2020 2:27 PM
  
  Sounds beautiful!
  
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Reflection Question
Food Make My Own

How do you feel about being more involved in the food preparation process? Joyful, overwhelmed, engaged, empowered? What are the benefits of choosing to process or produce your own food instead of buying it pre-processed?

Holly Parks 7/11/2020 5:13 AM

Well, I planted my vegetable garden in pots on the deck. Now that I am buried in Japanese eggplant, I spend more time looking for ways to prepare it. Since I live by myself, it is always a problem to decide how or if I can cut a recipe down to 1 or 2 servings.

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Reflection Question
Food Plant a Garden

Besides having access to fresh herbs and vegetables, what benefits will you see from growing your own garden?

Holly Parks 7/09/2020 6:05 AM

I love seeing the insects that pollinate the plants or even ones that feed on them. I plant parsley for the swallowtail caterpillars.

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Reflection Question
Food Say No to Plastic Bags

How difficult was this challenge for you? What made it easy or difficult?

Holly Parks 7/09/2020 6:03 AM

I have my own bags for produce which I will try to use in the store. Or the other option is just to put the produce in the cart sans bag. This it okay except when greens are really wet.

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Holly Parks 7/05/2020 7:11 AM

Baking my own bread has become an obsession. And it is so good that I never waste any of it.

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Holly Parks 7/02/2020 10:23 AM

Trying new foods sometimes results in food waste! Poor results or I don’t like the taste of something new.

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Holly Parks 7/02/2020 10:19 AM

Because the coronavirus impacts my shopping, I order most things online. I can’t tell what the packaging will be ahead of time. So I end up with plastic wrap around storage containers or a plastic bag ziplocked around a bottle of mouthwash. The plastic bag does fall into the plastic film category but very few places recycle plastic film, especially now with the virus.

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Holly Parks 7/01/2020 8:34 AM

Many plastic things are the only ones available during the coronavirus management. Where I would buy cans, the only option is plastic. Frustrating but I do my best.

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