Emily Thielman

I'm really glad that I participated in the Eco Challenge for the first time! I wish I had been able to be a little more focused during the time of the challenge, but I think I still learned a lot about different actions I can take to make a difference (even if I didn't get them all done this time around). I hope to participate again next time!

It's interesting to observe that even though I feel like I've started to make a change in how much disposable packaging comes into my house, there was already so much here in my cupboards, closets and fridge that there hasn't been a huge reduction (so far) in the amount we have to dispose of. It's probably particularly evident now since the recent change in plastic recycling - I can't quite yet bring myself to put those last few clamshells (which I bought when I still thought I could recycle them) into the garbage yet. I wonder if this is partly why it can be really hard to make new habits, since it really takes a while for all these products to work their way out of our lives it is easy to feel like you aren't making a difference when you've just started. 

I recently bought my plane ticket to go home to Wisconsin for Christmas. I had not known about purchasing carbon offsets until looking through the EcoChallange actions. I just bought a carbon offset and it was not as much as I expected. I hope to do this more often in the future!

We baked a pie tonight with the apples and pears we got from a local farm last weekend. :) We were also able to make use of food we had in the fridge to eat well this evening and prepare food for breakfast and lunch tomorrow, avoiding waste and saving money!

I've been excited to find that it's been more doable than I expected to avoid plastic bags and clam shell containers from the grocery store. I invested in some mesh and muslin reusable bags that have been doing very well for produce and bulk items so far. My next challenge will be to make more things at home that normally come in plastic bags, such as bread, English muffins and pizza dough. :)