Nicholas Repko

Nicholas Repko

Journal 6 

Eco Challenge reflection 

 

This week has been a lot different and more challenging compared to other weeks. A lot of the daily challenges presented in the waste and transportation areas are difficult to do with my current lifestyle. That means that it has given me greater perspective into how I can contribute to these categories even if it means just being more mindful towards the daily challenges that I chose and looking for every opportunity to implement these challenges successfully into my life. The daily challenges that I chose this week are to drive less and to use reusable bags. It’s funny because I had not gone to the store yet and had the opportunity to use reusable bags but as I sat down to start writing this journal, my roommate walked in and asked if I wanted to go to Walmart. I told him that I needed some more bread and a manilla folder and before he was about to leave it occurred to be that I should give me reusable bags for the groceries. We have a bunch just sitting around and I had never remembered to use them, and we have already accumulated enough of the plastic bags. I thought it was funny and serendipitous that as I was about to write my journal, I had the opportunity to complete one of my daily challenges. The other daily challenge that I chose was to drive less. I do not have a car on campus, but my roommate does and sometimes we take unnecessary trips to the store that could be done once a week instead of multiple times throughout the week. My goal is to be able to influence how many times we do go to the store and only when necessary. It has helped me to be more conscience about what we need for food and other necessities at the apartment. The one-time actions that I chose were to tour waste recovery site and to do more research on waste/recycle in my area. I killed two birds with one stone and went through the Lycoming County landfill website. They have a very extensive and inclusive site that made it very easy to see what they accepted and how they accepted things especially in the recycling aspect. I also found it strange that they charge individual residences more for disposal then any of the other sources of disposal. Residents are charges $60.05/Ton, and all the others are charge $44.65/Ton or less. 

            The barriers that are stopping from making these daily challenges is becoming lazy or being in a hurry and forgetting that they even exist. I always think to myself that I want to use reusable bags instead of plastic bags because I always find myself with an overabundance of plastic bags that I cannot do anything with. I end up throwing them out anyway. A lot of people just care about convenience and most of the time I just fall into that mob mentality. I really do not like traveling that much so driving less will not be a huge problem when applying to my life, but I am hoping I can be an example to others to drive less. 

            I love what the article by Annah Makenzie in Project for Public Spaces says about the use for streets. If people started to drive less and walk more the street could become more of a social place and another place of commerce. New businesses would be able to be opened so that people would not have to walk super far to get things and a greater sense of community would be built right in the streets that automobiles used to dominant. All I had to do to decide as to if I would make using reusable plastic bags a permanent lifestyle change was click on the resource for world plastic bag count. One of the headlines was that by 2050, plastic might outweigh fish in the ocean. This is terrible and I want to do everything that I can to stop this from happening. No matter how bleak or insignificant it may seem in the grand scheme of things.  I am willing to make these lifestyle changes permanent. But the spirit is strong, and the flesh is weak so we will see how it goes. 

Nicholas Repko

Journal 5

Due: Feb. 1

The new daily and one-time challenges that I added this past week were the turn the computer off for at least two hours, use a reusable bottle for water, and for the one-time I did research on renewable energy in my region. The daily challenges were especially eye opening and fruitful. You never really know how much impact you can make and how easy it is unless you try. The Eco challenge gives us this opportunity to analyze things in our life that we might even do subconsciously but is an easy switch to make. Powering down my computer is something that I never thought to do until this challenge came about. It is so easy to do and implement into my life. I used to just keep it plugged in the whole night and thought nothing of it. Now I see no problem with powering down my computer for the entire night and charging it for a bit here and there throughout the day. The thing that really helps me is seeing that it is making a change with the one pound of CO2 emissions that is saved each time that I do it. The other daily challenge that I chose was a reusable water bottle instead of plastic or other water containers. Even though Bucknell offers paper and cardboard cups now I still want to be as environmental as possible and only use my water bottle. This is such an easy thing to do throughout the day. Bucknell has provided us with the ability to refill our water bottles at multiple filling stations on campus. The one-time challenge that I chose was the researching and discovering renewable energy in our region. I learned that 4% of Pennsylvania’s electric is generated from renewable energy sources. This does not seem like a lot, but it is a step in the right direction. Most of the renewable energy comes from wind energy farms located in the Appalachian Mountains and along the shores of Lake Erie. Biomass accounted for 1/5 of the states total renewable energy generated. Hydropower accounted for 1/3 and solar power for 8%. I also learned that right here on Bucknall campus we have multiple LEED certified buildings like Academic West. This means that the project as a whole save’s money, improves efficiency, has lower carbon emissions, and provides a healthier environmental overall. 

            I do not think that there are any barriers that will stop these challenges from becoming a permanent lifestyle change. Laziness and inattentiveness are the main problems I will face when the challenge is done. I must keep doing it until it becomes a habit, and it is done subconsciously. These little changes can inspire others to do the same thing and allow for a better world to be built from each person’s individual examples and actions. I am willing to make the action of powering off my computer permanent because from the resources provided, the Department of Energy recommends power down your computer not only to save energy but also to save money. I am willing to only use a reusable water bottle because plastic pollution is such a huge problem in our oceans today. The Guardian states that around 5m to 13m tons of plastic are leaked into the ocean to be digested by marine life and birds. This is so scary to think about and I do not want to be contributing to this. This will take time to make a change in all aspects of my life in the plastic sense, but I feel that starting with not using plastic water bottles is a good way to begin and then analyze my plastic consumption life from there. 

Nicholas Repko
Having these daily and one-time challenges added to my life over the past week have been a source of reflection and responsibility. I must make the conscience effort to remember to go onto the website to check off the box and the number of minutes that I have completed that day. The one-time challenge allowed me to reflect on my core values and realize what my personal goal are for myself. Even though it was a one-time challenge it still taught me to ask myself that question every day. What do I want to become? What do I want to share with others? It is a question that each person should ask themselves every day. The daily challenges have allowed me to be more reflective and appreciative of what I have in my life. The not having distractions while eating make me more appreciative of the food that I do have and the act of being aware of nature does the same. What was surprising for me with these challenges was how it easy it was to complete them each day and remember to do them. I thought that it would just get lost in the monotony of my everyday life, but it did not. This might be only the case of these two topics of nature and simplicity. We will see if it will change when we begin with other topics in the coming weeks. The barriers that might keep me from making this lifestyle change would be the simple fact of not having the responsibility to check in each day on the website to show that I completed it. It takes around 2 months to form a new habit so I have no idea if it will be able to continue some of these things after we are done with these EcoChallenge. I would be willing to make these lifestyle changes permanent. I have come to the realize that all the daily and one-time challenges that I have chosen so far are fruitful and worth continuing past the unit is finished in a couple of weeks. In the daily challenge of going outside to appreciate nature can be beneficial to my physical as well as my mental health. One of the resources provided by YaleEnvironmet360 gave substantial evidence on why at least two hours each week of nature time can be extremely beneficial. The study looked at around 20,000 people and compared results with people who spent two hours a week in nature versus those who do not. Evidence shows that it can lower blood pressure, stress hormones, reduce nervous system arousal, enhance immune system function, increase self-esteem, reduce anxiety, and improve mood. All of these results seem like reason enough to continue with some of the nature daily challenges in the EcoChallenge. Being more mindful while I eat is also something that I feel I can make the commitment after the unit is done. One of the resources of this challenge by Harvard Health Publishing points out that eating while being distracted causes you to be hungrier and eat more. This can lead to gaining weight. This makes sense to me and will always be in the back of my mind now when I go to eat while being distracted. I want to be healthy, and these challenges are giving me good habits to follow even after this unit it done. I hope and will try to continue these challenges. I also hope that the other challenges that I will pick up throughout the rest of the unit will be as if not more fruitful then the current challenges.