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October 2 - October 23, 2019
Heidy Hinojosa's avatar

Heidy Hinojosa

Green Demons

"I hope to become more involved in the world around me. It's time to stop saying that you don't have enough time to do this, and to do that... The time for change is now!"

POINTS TOTAL

  • 0 TODAY
  • 0 THIS WEEK
  • 404 TOTAL

participant impact

  • UP TO
    35
    meatless or vegan meals
    consumed
  • UP TO
    15
    minutes
    spent learning
  • UP TO
    102
    gallons of water
    have been saved
  • UP TO
    5.0
    pounds
    waste composted
  • UP TO
    12
    zero-waste meals
    consumed
  • UP TO
    2.0
    pounds
    food waste prevented
  • UP TO
    4.3
    pounds of CO2
    have been saved

Heidy's actions

Food

Reduce Animal Products

I will enjoy 3 meatless meal(s) and/or 2 vegan meal(s) each day this week.

COMPLETED 0
DAILY ACTIONS

Waste

Compost Food Waste

I will avoid sending up to .69 lbs (.31 kg) of food waste to the landfill each day by composting my food or learning how to.

COMPLETED 0
DAILY ACTIONS

Food

Zero-Waste Cooking

I will cook 2 meal(s) with zero-waste each day

COMPLETED 0
DAILY ACTIONS

Energy

Turn it off

I will keep lights, electronics, and appliances turned off when not using them.

COMPLETED 0
DAILY ACTIONS

Waste

Learn About & Practice Sustainable Fashion

I will spend 15 minutes learning about sustainable fashion and begin trying to practice it in my own life.

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?


  • Heidy Hinojosa's avatar
    Heidy Hinojosa 10/23/2019 2:40 PM
    Apples collected in an organization I volunteer in called Care for Friends for my compost! :)
  • REFLECTION QUESTION
    Waste Compost Food Waste
    New to composting? Be sure to check out the action resource links to learn tips and more about it. As you transition from throwing food away to composting, what do you notice about how much you are tossing? How will you use your compost once it is ready?

    Heidy Hinojosa's avatar
    Heidy Hinojosa 10/22/2019 1:48 PM
    Before this challenge I have been throwing away food that I probably just sitting in land fills when it could've been composted. It's really sad to think about it because most people are living this way, tossing food into landfills.... 

    • Lydia Connolly's avatar
      Lydia Connolly 10/22/2019 10:01 PM
      Hey Heidy, I agree that composting is not the first thing that people think about when they want to make the switch to sustainable living. I think it's awesome that you took on this challenge, and I hope you can give us some good tips on how you made it work, especially living in Chicago. I think we have to remember that we do have the ability to compost because of our privilege, so if we can make the switch we should! A lot of people don't have the luxury to be able to compost, so I think that this is one lifestyle change people can implement if they are trying to switch to sustainable living. 
  • REFLECTION QUESTION
    Waste Learn About & Practice Sustainable Fashion
    How can you express your personality, creativity, and values in ways that don't require fast fashion or buying more clothes and accessories?

    Heidy Hinojosa's avatar
    Heidy Hinojosa 10/22/2019 1:46 PM
    You can switch it up! Try and get creative with what you were, try different combinations, layering (especially in the fall). You can even be risky and search ups a lot of DIY clothing inspirations of how to tailor clothing to create something new!

    • Andrew Larkin's avatar
      Andrew Larkin 10/23/2019 9:05 PM
      I agree. You can find tons of clothes with lots of character at stores like Goodwill and save money at the same time! I also like to try to bring in clothes I no longer wear when going to Goodwill or other resale stores.

  • Heidy Hinojosa's avatar
    Heidy Hinojosa 10/22/2019 1:40 PM
    Creating your own compost is a lot easier than I imagined. Initially I thought that it would be difficult and time consuming, but a quick DIY video motivated me to start this journey. The first thing I needed to do is grab a bucket, and fill it with scraps of dirt, leaves, and twigs. Throughout the week my boyfriend and I put aside our scraps of food, banana peals, egg shells, apples, and other things. We noticed throughout the week how much food we used to just pill on with our regular trash. 

    Composting in winter is great too, something that I learned, because it eliminates odors, and the thawing is more effective!
  • REFLECTION QUESTION
    Food Reduce Animal Products
    Why do people in richer countries eat more meat than people in other places? How does eating more meat affect our planet and other people?

    Heidy Hinojosa's avatar
    Heidy Hinojosa 10/12/2019 10:16 PM
    Eating meats, is often a little expensive. Here in America I want to say it's an American thing, burgers, steaks... etc. People just love the idea of it 

    But in another perspective, meat and burgers are much more obtainable to people, than other resources. :(

  • Heidy Hinojosa's avatar
    Heidy Hinojosa 10/12/2019 10:10 PM
    Recently I watched a documentary, Food Inc and on top of this eco challenge, it made me reflect on how much meat I consume. It's scary how bad our meat industries are, and how dirty they can be. This week, Monday-Friday I cooked meatless meals . The weather seemed to drop a bit so I cooked lentils for dinner one week, pasta salads, and cooked some veggies, rice and tofu. I also ate some of my moms cooking which was just traditional enchiladas, just stuffed with cheese! I've been feeling a lot more cleaner, and don't get that sluggish feeling after dinner like before!! 

  • Heidy Hinojosa's avatar
    Heidy Hinojosa 10/06/2019 10:17 PM
    This weekend I started thinking about electricity and how much of it is wasted for no reason. One thing I really wanted to focus on was my electricity usage. Both my boyfriend and myself have a bad habit of wasting electricity. We go to work in a rush, we forget to turn off Ac's, and lights in several rooms, and even just sometimes do it so my dog can have.a light on. This week we shifted towards just using natural sunlight through the day, and keeping the rest of our usage at a minim. We stopped leaving the light on for my dog, and since it's been chilly out, we don't even bother to turn the AC on, even if we're cooking and it gets hot! We are hoping that we keep this good habitat. It's keeping us aware of both the earth and our electricity bill!
  • REFLECTION QUESTION
    Energy Turn it off
    How is electricity generated where you live? How does it impact the environment, animals, and humans?

    Heidy Hinojosa's avatar
    Heidy Hinojosa 10/06/2019 8:40 PM
    In the state of Illinois, coal generates a major portion of the state's electricity, 41 percent, nuclear power generates almost 50 percent of the state's electricity. Other generation sources, primarily natural gas and wind, supply about 10 percent of the state's electricity generation. 

    This impacts the environment as a whole because it pollutes our air, causing a chain effect of everything. Greenhouse gases get emitted, our waters pollute, and the whole climate just warms up over all. This then affects animals and humans because our quality of life decreases.  

    • Barbara Willard's avatar
      Barbara Willard 10/09/2019 1:20 PM
      Good for you for looking up where the energy comes from.  Com Ed has regular reports on our energy sources for the Chicago region.  It's sad to see how little wind energy we use.  I wish we could shift to more renewable energy.