The goal of this challenge is to take inventory of your wardrobe for organic or recycled cotton.  Organic cotton* is grown using low environmental impact methods, like a reduction in toxic pesticides and genetically engineered seed.  When cotton is recycled, in denim for example, the material is turned back into its fiber state which then goes on to become a variety of different materials.  Textiles that fit the organic criteria are labeled with the GOTS seal (Global Organic Textile Standard)**

So I went on a hunt.  I scoured through my closet, my drawers, and even the clothes that had been sitting in my laundry basket.  And guess what? I didn’t find any organic or recycled cotton products.  None.  None at all.  It was pretty disappointing, to be honest.  I had never really put a thought into what my clothing was made out of before now.  “Is it cute? Is it cheap? Is it comfy? Ok let’s buy it” is all that I really think about when I get clothes.  But this inspired me to try to find affordable places to buy organic cotton.

The first website that was GOTS certified had super nice clothes and a HUGE selection.  But then I looked at their prices.  Eeek.  Most of their clothes averaged about $100. No thanks!  So I kept looking.  Eventually, I found a website called Pact.  Not only are they GOTS certified, they have a pretty decent selection of clothing for amazing prices, too.

Their mission statement:

“PACT ORGANIC unites the collective vision of organic cotton farming, responsible manufacturing, sustainable and ethical certifications, and values-based shopping. We believe organic cotton is the foundation for addressing labor and environmental challenges that surround clothing. Our mission is to change the apparel industry for good.”

Here are some other websites that sell organic clothing.

So not only is it better for the environment to buy organic cotton, but it’s even affordable!

http://organiccottonplus.com/pages/learning-center

http://www.global-standard.org/the-standard/general-description.html

This challenge was simply to visit a local farmer’s market. Luckily there are many local farmers market’s in the towns surrounding where I live, however I chose to go to my home town’s local farmer’s market in Kings Park. This particular market was less than 5 minutes away from where I live, and probably could name 5 other farmer’s markets that I know of that are near where I live. I think this is great for the farmer’s markets because not only is it easier and more convenient for more people to shop locally, it means that farmer’s can compete with each other as far as prices go. There were a variety of different produce and products to chose from. There were fruits, vegetables, personal care products, cakes, breads, pickles, flowers, and many other products. As you can see by the sign, everything is home grown and GMO free!

The reason locally grown produce is more sustainable is that it is produced in close proximity to the consumer, therefore the product does not need to be shipped long distances. On average, conventional produce that comes from the supermarket travels 1494, compared to the 56 miles traveled by local produce. However, many people do not often shop at a farmer’s market due to affordability. It is true that the price of food from a local farmers market is considerably higher than that at the grocery store. However, there are many advantages from buying locally grown food. Firstly, the carbon footprint of these food products is significantly reduced. Secondly, there is the satisfaction of knowing that this produce is GMO free, and probably mostly organically produced. Finally, as described in the documentary “Food Inc.”, each time you purchase food at a farmer’s market, you are “voting” for more sustainable food options to be on the market.

Farmer’s markets are not always just fruits and vegetables- a lot of the time local businesses will provide other handmade products. This particular woman makes different personal care products right out of her kitchen! The stand included soaps, deodorants, body wash, and many other products. Unfortunately the cost of these items were just out of my budget range, however there is no doubt that these are high quality soap items. Another added benefit of shopping at a local farmer’s market is that you can know that you’re money is going into small businesses and not in the hands of big corporations!

It is ultimately up to the consumer whether they will shop locally or just go to the grocery store. I think that although you might be paying more for locally grown food, the benefits make it worth it. Even if someone is not able to make the transition to buying locally grown food products, there are many other locally produced products that are much more sustainable than products found in the supermarket. I hope that in the future I can live comfortably enough to purchase food locally regularly, without it being a strain on my finances.

Below is a link to a list of all of the farmer’s markets found on Long Island!

Long Island Farmers’ Markets 2016

How often do we use a plastic bag one time and immediately throw it away? We find it that easy to buy something one time, take the item out of the bag when we get home, and toss that plastic bag out. We only use that bag for quick transportation and then we are done with that bag. This is a natural habit we’ve all formed.

Yes, it is unrealistic to expect to completely eliminate plastic in our daily lives. But, it is important to use it consciously! Reusing a plastic bag can convert the item that could’ve ended up in a landfill being stacked up without being given even a second chance. It’s possible to reuse bags considering we’re constantly using them for transportation.

When I went home this week, I stopped at a local boutique called Ruby and Jenna to pick up something to wear over the thanksgiving break.

I brought this bag back to campus with me because I stopped to shop while traveling back out to Stony Brook.

A friend of mine texted me the next day and asked me if I could buy a Stony Brook t-shirt for her dad. I thought this could be a perfect opportunity to reuse that Ruby and Jenna bag I had. When I went to the register to pay for the shirt, I told the cashier that I wouldn’t be needing a bag. I took the receipt and the shirt and put it into the bag and brought it back to my dorm with me.

Stony Brook Bookstore Shirt

After i got back to my dorm, I was brainstorming ways to reuse this bag. I realized all of me and my suite mates keep our condiments and snacks and coffee boxes scattered over the shelf and floor. I realized i could use this bag to stack the condiments in it because it is a sturdy enough bag to hold everything.

Before and After

It is not difficult to reuse bags because it was easy for me to give this bag three lives in just a couple of days. I may even be able to give this bag a couple more. Especially because this one is sturdy, I can make even more use out of it! It cost me absolutely nothing to recycle the bag and give it a place to keep my things organized and from place to place.

Shower Efficiently

The goal of this challenge is to decrease the amount of water used during your shower.  On average for someone living in the US, 80-100gallons of water is used per day.  The largest use of water actually comes from flushing the toilet.  Because think about it, you’re doing that at least twice a day, and for each flush about 3 gallons of water are needed.  But after that, shower/bath use consumes the most water.

Water flow varies from shower to shower.  Older showers use on average 5 gallons of water per minute, while newer, water-saving showers produce about 2 gallons of water per minute.  So if you say that (on average) about 3 gallons of water flow per minute for the average shower, think about how much water that uses for a ten-minute shower.  That’s thirty gallons for that one shower.

Reducing your water use during your shower is actually pretty easy!  For this challenge I turned the water off while I put on shampoo and soap, and honestly it wasn’t bad at all.  I was expecting to be freezing, but I wasn’t at all.  It was just slightly colder than I was while the water was running.  It actually made me take a shorter shower.  Most of the time when I’m taking a shower, I like to take my time.  So my showers are usually around ten minutes.  But after completing this challenge, my shower time went down because I was washing my hair and body a lot quicker than I usually would. Instead of washing my hair, standing in the water for a minute, and then using body wash, I did them one right after the other. After wet my hair I turned it off and in all, it was probably off for about three minutes.  So those three minutes saved 9 gallons, plus the extra minute and a half I saved on my overall shower time, another 4.5 gallons, so all in all, 13.5 gallons of water were saved.

I’ll definitely carry this practice on with me in the future.  It’s such an easy, simple change that really does make a difference.

Other water saving tips!

• Take shorter showers
• Coordinate warm water use with other house members
• Install a Low-flow shower head (can save up to 45% of the water normally used)
• Water volume controller

(All information obtained from EcoChallenge app and http://water.usgs.gov/edu/qa-home-percapita.html)

Most clothing that the majority of people own today is made from cotton. This soft, flexible material represents around 50% of the world’s textile production. Many people do not realize the environmental effects cotton has on our planet. Unless organic, most cotton is treated with synthetic chemicals. Cotton production accounts for about 25% of the world’s insecticides, and 10% of the world’s pesticides. About 8,000 chemicals are used in the processing of cotton. These chemicals are known to pollute our air and water, as well as our soil. Since the industrial revolution, cotton has been processed in factories, which leads to large emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Using the calculator on the eco challenge app, I was able to estimate that the amount of CO2 that was released during the production of my clothing could easily reach over 500,000 grams.

For this challenge, I had to purchase only organic or recycled cotton products. Again, since whole foods is the mecca of all things organic and sustainable, I went there to see what selection of organic cotton products they had for sale. I was completely shocked. The prices were ridiculously out of our decided budget! The only item that was in our budget range (20$ per challenge requiring materials) was a pair of socks.

14 dollars for one pair of socks.

     Everything seemed outrageously overpriced and I couldn’t understand why. One thin, zip up hoodie that looked like it could go for around 20 dollars at Old Navy was priced at 50 dollars. There was nothing particularly special about any of these items except for the fact that they were made from organic cotton.

So, I decided to head to the mecca of all things cheap- Amazon. Luckily I was there able to find a 100% organic cotton mens t shirt for about 5 dollars.

Besides this one lucky find, it seemed extremely hard to find any selection of organic cotton clothing that was affordable. I questioned this and researched further to find out why organic cotton is so expensive.

Firstly, organic cotton is more expensive because just like anything else that is labelled “organic,” the process of growing the plant itself is much more costly. This is due to the fact that conventional chemical methods are not used as fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides. Although those methods are generally unsafe to ourselves and the environment, conventional methods are used often since it is cheaper than using alternative growing techniques. There are also a variety of chemicals that are conventionally used during the harvesting process which are not used in the organic method of harvesting. Additionally, organic fabrics are more expensive to manufacture due to the fact that facilities that create fabric are often shared with organic cotton fabric producers and non-organic producers. This means that the organic producers must pay for the facility to clean the equipment from the left over residue of the non organic cotton. This also applies to the shared equipment in the manufacturing process. Finally, one of the major reason organic clothing is more expensive to produce is the fact that cheap labor or sweatshops are not utilized (http://organicclothing.blogs.com/my_weblog/2006/12/the_high_cost_o.html).

I realized while calculating the carbon footprint of the production of my wardrobe that (as I realize whenever I sort through my closet) I have a LOT of clothes. I think many people have this same issue where they have so many items of clothing however only really wear the same few outfits on a regular basis. I think that if more people switched to a more minimalist philosophy when it comes to clothing, organic cotton clothing might be something that more people consider. I think that instead of purchasing many shirts for very cheap, it would be wise to purchase only a few shirts that will be durable enough to last awhile. If this were the case, people may consider spending more money on organic clothing, but buying fewer clothes. I do not think that in our near future the price of organic cotton clothing will neccesarily go down, however, I think people must seriously consider what it takes to produce the clothing that they were.

I honestly think that this challenge has shifted my perspective on clothing. I, like many others, never really considered what went into producing the shirt I am wearing, who made it, and what the cost of it was. We often take for granted the things that are abundantly in front of us without second thought. I think that as consumers it is our responsibility to be aware of the items that we are purchasing and the effects it has on our environment.

Over the last century, plastic has creeped it’s way into almost every product we purchase. Whether something is made of plastic or not, it most likely is somehow packaged in it. There are so many different forms of plastic on the market and most of it isn’t recycled how it should be. Today, the world’s ocean contains 6 times more plastic than plankton. Every year 6.4 billion tons of plastic find their way into our oceans, a total of 18,000 pieces of plastic per km. Plastic bags are one of the most common daily uses of plastic. They are on average used for about 25 minutes, and take up to 100 years to decompose. It makes us ask, is that really worth it?

*Items include salsa, can of beans, potted succulent, yogurt, boxed coconut milk (not sure what its actually made of, it didn’t seem plastic, it is at least recyclable) and paper to go box of food. Most items in the store that were plastic free were canned and jarred goods. I definitely could not purchase a shopping list of food without buying plastic!

This challenge was extremely difficult, as you could imagine. It is nearly impossible to find anything in the supermarket that isn’t somehow contained in plastic. Even produce is normally carried in plastic bags. The first two items that I recognized as plastic free were canned goods and goods contained in class. There are a variety of goods that are made like this however the majority of goods in the store were packages in plastic somehow. I utilized the tips on the Eco challenge app gave to give me a few ideas on what to find as an alternative to plastic. One alternative to plastic is a material known as bioplastics. Bioplastics are created from renewable materials and are similar to plastic, however they are not made from crude oil. Most bioplastics are made from starch. Thermoplastic starches are created by using the starch from corn, wheat, and potatoes. This is mixed with water to produce different qualities that are useful for the product being sold, such as water resistance. Two items that I bought that were packaged in bioplastic material included yogurt and the potted succulent plant. The can I purchased was another example of a plastic alternative, as it is made from polylactic acid. Polylactic acid is a thermoplastic polyester derived from renewable resources, such as corn starch, tapioca products, or sugarcane. It is often used as a replacement to plastic due to its transparency. Polylactic acid is used to produce plastic wrap, cans, fruit containers, bottles, construction materials, lenses, and medical products.

The purpose of this challenge was not to bring cloth bags to the grocery store and bring home as much produce as possible, the purpose was to recognize how much plastic plays a role in our day to day lives. It is amazing to imagine how much plastic waste is produced just from purchasing food products alone. However, some companies are aware of this issue and chose to take action to become more sustainable in their packaging. I chose to shop at Whole Foods specifically since whole foods is known as being a company which takes initiative to become more sustainable. I found when I was at the store that although there were reserved parking spots for energy efficient cars, and different trash cans for different types of waste (landfill, plastic utensils, etc.), there were still tons of products contained in plastic, something that Whole Foods has little control over. I did some further research and found that Whole Foods actually created an initiative in 2010 by asserting new responsible packaging guidelines for all of its body care and supplement suppliers companywide. These guidelines were accepted by many vendors, with efforts being made to reduce the amount of plastic in packaging, switching to glass when possible, utilizing recyclable packing materials as often as possible, and using as much post-consumer recycled product as possible. Whole foods had also switched to post-consumer recycled (PCR) content bottles for many of their own store-brand body care and supplement products (http://media.wholefoodsmarket.com/news/whole-foods-market-implements-new-sustainable-packaging-guidelines-for-all-).

Unfortunately there is little we as consumers can do to combat this plastic issue. It is very difficult to completely stay away from plastic packaging. However, bringing reusable bags to the grocery store is one way to save many plastic bags from being thrown away into the environment. Hopefully more companies will take sustainable initiative like Whole Foods has in order to become more sustainable with our packaging of products.

Have you downloaded the EcoChallenge App? Take our poll!

https://goo.gl/d5b8rP