Becca and Gordon’s Challenge Posts
We are both graduate students in the environmental sciences at UC Berkeley. We spend our time fighting for environmental progress through science, and we make this a personal goal as well. We appreciate living in a place where it is so easy to shop and eat locally, and we started our own modest garden and worm compost outside our tiny apartment. Despite our efforts, we easily get wrapped up in the hurried, convenient plastic-wrapped ways of life.
On a recent field campaign to Hawaii to study native insects, we saw beaches lined with plastic of all shapes and sizes. It was alarming, but not surprising. We had read about the plastic sea before and seen countless pictures of bird guts filled with plastic bottle caps. But, seeing it in person really struck a chord. We did a mini-plastic challenge a few years ago but didn’t go long enough to really change our behaviors. This time we’re all in and excited to make some big changes!!!
We also have two cats, and we will count their plastic paw prints with our waste stream as well. We will not, at this time, include our plastic contribution from our research. Unfortunately, lab work generates a lot of plastic waste (pipet tips, gloves, etc) which seems largely unavoidable. Any suggestions for how to tackle that beast would be much appreciated.
Plastic Challenge: Becca and Gordon, Week 32
What do you do with old gift cards? Can they be recycled? Location:Berkeley, California, United States
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Plastic Challenge: Becca Ryals and Gordon Bennett, Week 31
Location:Berkeley, California, United States
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Plastic Challenge: Becca Ryals and Gordon Bennett, Week 30
How do you reduce running-related plastic? We just started running races. We did a 10K this weekend and got a plastic bag full of plastic-wrapped food samples and Gu along with our race number. Location:Berkeley, California, United States
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Plastic Challenge: Becca Ryals and Gordon Bennett, Week 29
Are there plastic-free pain killers? Location:Berkeley, California, United States
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Plastic Challenge: Becca Ryals and Gordon Bennett, Weeks 21 and 22
Are there plastic-free band aids? Location:Berkeley, California, United States
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Plastic Challenge: Becca Ryals and Gordon Bennett, Week 20
1. I’d love to hear tips for plastic-free traveling. I will be going to PR for field work. I’m not sure rustic my accommodations will be, but I think I’ll be able to do my own cooking. My friends in PR have a hard time reducing plastics. Even produce is heavily packaged! Location:Berkeley, California, United [...]
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Plastic Challenge: Becca Ryals and Gordon Bennett, Week 19
Is it awkward to tell your dentist that you don’t want their toothbrush? Location:Berkeley, California, United States
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Plastic Challenge: Becca Ryals and Gordon Bennett, Week 18
Plastic-free chapstick with SPF? Location:Berkeley, California, United States
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Plastic Challenge: Becca Ryals and Gordon Bennett, Week 17
Do plastic-free sunscreens exist? Location:Berkeley, California, United States
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Plastic Challenge: Becca Ryals and Gordon Bennett, Week 16
I recently had to buy vacuum bags. They came in a packet of 3, in a plastic bag. Are there other options? Location:Berkeley, California, United States
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Plastic Challenge: Becca Ryals and Gordon Bennett, Week 15
What are the best options for baking supplies, like canola oil and powdered sugar? Location:Berkeley, California, United States
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Plastic Challenge: Becca Ryals and Gordon Bennett, Week 14
I have pretty much eliminated most of my unwanted junk mail, but Comcast still send me at least one letter a week, often addressed to “current resident.” I already called them and they said they would stop the letters, but they haven’t. Any suggestions for how to change their behaviors?
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Plastic Challenge: Becca Ryals and Gordon Bennett, Week 13
Does anyone have any tips for hosting a plastic-free baby shower?
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Plastic Challenge: Becca Ryals and Gordon Bennett, Week 12
Plastic Challenge: Becca Ryals and Gordon Bennett, Week 11
Plastic Challenge: Becca Ryals and Gordon Bennett, Week 10
Plastic Challenge: Becca Ryals and Gordon Bennett, Week 8
Plastic Challenge: Becca Ryals and Gordon Bennett, Week 9
Plastic Challenge: Becca Ryals and Gordon Bennett, Week 7
Plastic Challenge: Becca Ryals and Gordon Bennett, Week 6
