Green Gal

　 Yesterday, Monday, April 22, was my 21st b-earth day, and at 6:30 AM my phone buzzed with a text message from my aunt and uncle wishing me a happy birthday. Normally, I would respond thank you and then fall back to sleep for another couple hours. But something about knowing that it was Earth Day and my birthday made me think twice about closing my eyes. Ultimately, the morning mystery of early sunlight that I could see through my window got me up and out of bed and out the door into the morning. I walked to a garden near where I live and spent some time observing the little lettuces and other plants growing there. The view of the bay from the garden was stunning, and I felt so blessed and grateful for the morning and the place where I live. As I walked back, I noticed a sqaushed plastic water bottle by the grass, so I picked it up to recycle it. I kept walking and saw cigarette butts on the ground near some benches, so I picked them up and put them into the little ash tray bu...

Have you ever realized that the most sustainably packaged, healthy, and portable snack out there is fruit? It comes with its own wrapper (its skin), it's good for your health and your soul (as my boyfriend always reminds me, fruit is designed by nature to be attractive and taste good... I say that anything whose sole intention is to make you feel good is good for the soul), and you can take fruit with you without hassle. Apples, bananas, oranges, peaches, and other hand-held fruits are especially portable, but strawberries, berries, and other smaller fruits are easy enough to carry in hand or in a basket. Can we all just take a moment to be grateful and exhilarated by the beauty that is fruit? Mmm, peaches at a local farm. Juicy and delicious and portable and not wasteful! Gorgeous, too!   Organic strawberries at the local farmers' market  

Stores that sell college dorm "necessities" give out those lists every fall with tons of awesome gadgets, furniture, and other "essentials that every college student needs"! Of course, you want to be comfortable and have all the stuff you need for college so you can focus on getting good grades and having fun. But as a third year college student who thinks she might have finally gotten the system down, I'm here to tell you that while those lists can be great reminders for the things you really do need, you do not need to get those items new and you certainly don't need to buy all of the latest "dorm" accessories--if truth be told, you don't have room for all of those things in your dorm. One of my boxes Green Gal brought to her first dorm room at UC Santa Cruz. If you want to save money, reduce your environmental impact, and still have the stuff you need to be comfortable and happy as you study and enjoy college, you first have to take th...

This week, I took Beth Terry (of MyPlasticFreeLife.com )'s  Show Your Plastic Challenge . I met Beth last Sunday at a lecture she gave for Science Sundays at the Seymour Center at Long Marine lab, and I was inspired to be more conscious of plastic in my life and begin the process of living without it. You can read a little about Beth and the lecture that I attended  here . I purchased a copy of Beth's book at the lecture last Sunday, and I am LOVING it. She has not only great resources and facts about plastic, but she also includes practical solutions. I will be writing more about her book in future posts. The challenge is to " Collect all of your own plastic waste, both recyclable and non, for a minimum of one week ." I tried my best to do the challenge this past week, but I went home for the weekend (I spend most of the year on campus at UC Santa Cruz) and lost track of a few of the plastic items that I used while out to lunch with family. I also didn't pr...

Here are some photos from a recent trip to Big Basin Redwoods State Park ... Yeah recycling! They should have a big sign on the trash that says "LANDFILL" with a picture of a landfill. Sometimes guilt and reminders can really help people remember to put their recyclables in the proper bins... Spotted this in the general store, and was glad to see that Environmental sustainability was one of their core values. I felt right at home in the redwood forest at Big Basin. Yeah, banana slugs are pretty much the coolest. My banana slug brethern! The view from inside that giant tree pictured above. A little creepy, I must admit! Hope your Tuesday is sustainably swell!

This week's Change the World Wednesday Challenge on the Reduce Footprints blog was the following open-ended challenge: This week, suggest a challenge. This can be a repeat of a past challenge, a version of something we've already done or something completely new ... anything which you feel we should address. And/Or ... Tell us about something you're struggling with ... a green-living activity which is difficult to adopt in your life. On my blog post on Wednesday where I posed my challenge idea , I wrote: I am going to combine the two options this week and choose a challenge that will benefit my wallet as well as the planet. I struggle sometimes with remembering how must waste is generated by eating out. It often feels easier to just buy food for lunch instead of preparing it at home, and stopping by Starbucks often sounds delicious... But most fast food or to-go establishments generate waste--not to mention it costs more money than just eating the food alr...

It's Wednesday! That means there's a new Change the World Wednesday Challenge up on Reduce Footprints' blog ... This week, suggest a challenge. This can be a repeat of a past challenge, a version of something we've already done or something completely new ... anything which you feel we should address. And/Or ... Tell us about something you're struggling with ... a green-living activity which is difficult to adopt in your life. I am going to combine the two options this week and choose a challenge that will benefit my wallet as well as the planet. I struggle sometimes with remembering how must waste is generated by eating out. It often feels easier to just buy food for lunch instead of preparing it at home, and stopping by Starbucks often sounds delicious... But most fast food or to-go establishments generate waste--not to mention it costs more money than just eating the food already at home, and it often isn't the healthiest choice. This wee...

In case you missed my update last Thursday about this week’s Change the World Wednesday Challenge from the Reduce Footprints blog , here it is: This week do a 'waste audit' or ask a super green person you know to do one and help you see where you can do better in creating less waste. For guidelines on how to do an audit, read How to Reduce Your Household Waste . There’s still time for you to pay attention to your own waste generation and do a one-day waste audit. For details on how the challenge works, click here. Or you could do it on your own once the challenge is over. I didn’t do a full home waste audit as the challenge suggests, but instead simply paid attention to what habits generate waste and tried to make better choices. I documented the experience somewhat with photographs, and here is what I found. I got Panda Express twice this week. Though the bowl meal I got here is recyclable and I ate all of the meal, it still generates something that ends up leavin...