Madison Prince

I live with 8 other people in my apartment, and it can get really messy because of that. For a while, everybody got complacent about the trash situation and started putting recyclables in the same bags as regular waste. I encouraged us to start a recycling system, and just to take the extra couple seconds to separate recyclables from the rest of the trash. It's been working for months now, and I even volunteer to take all of the recyclables down to the bins myself so that it makes it easier on everyone else and they feel less of a burden to recycle.

I have started learning more about expiration dates. I was blinded, like most of the rest of the world, by what expiration dates say and would throw food products away immediately if I saw that it was even one day past its printed date. I had no idea how bad that was for the environment, and I’m so glad I know now. I noticed that my eggs were a few days past due after I heard about the “myth” of expiration dates, and I didn’t know how to tell if they were good because it’s hard to smell them (unless they’re really bad) and you can’t easily look inside. I was trying to make brownies, and I had to crack the egg into the bowl. I looked it up, and apparently you can tell if an egg is bad by putting it in a glass of water and seeing if it floats or not. If it does, throw them out. If it doesn’t, it’s safe! I’ve saved many an egg that way now and I feel like I’m doing better by the environment by being more educated.

I have started to eat more fruits and vegetables, and have tried my best to stay away from meat. I still do eat meat, but it has been very easy to minimize my meat intake and swap it out for more sustainable foods. I know it may sound obvious, but I’ve felt better in general since I started eating healthier. I didn’t realize how bad my eating habits were and how much your diet actually impacts your everyday life. I have more energy and am in a better mood most of the time. I’ve even gotten some of my friends to hop on this wave with me, and one of my roommates even started buying fruits in bulk so the rest of the apartment can partake!

I had made plans to go to Las Vegas a long time ago, and they came up faster than I had planned for (because of my busy schedule and lack of procrastination to plan ahead for almost anything.) I live in Los Angeles, and I realized that I was going to run into the issue of how to get to Vegas. I have a car with my parents in San Diego and I thought of taking a train to go get it and drive there. I also thought about flying, since I had waited so long to figure out what I was going to do. Then, I thought about the fact that those would both be really bad for the environment and thought about my professor, Tamar. She takes the bus every day to work and doesn’t even own a car. I never take public transportation, and I looked into buses from LA to Vegas. There were so many options, so I booked a ticket. I ended up on a really cool adventure, and I know I minimized my impact on the environment as best as I could given the situation. It was awesome and I would do it again!

I also started taking a reusable bag to the grocery store instead of just using the plastic ones we have there. I have 8 roommates and we have way too many of those plastic bags lying around. I can't imagine how bad the problem of plastic bags must be if we, as a household of 9, are already overflowing with them. The bag I brought was actually bigger than the ones at the store so I had less individual bags to carry, and I didn't have to pay an extra 10 cents per bag this time!

I noticed that I have been using far too many plastic, one-time-use products when there are many alternatives that will be much better for the environment. Instead of using the plastic sups and straws I usually use to hold my morning coffee and the apple juice I usually get in the middle of the day, I washed my metal hydro flask instead and carried that around with me. It was not out of my way at all, and it made me feel better about myself all day.

I have started to walk everywhere! I barely ride my motorcycle anymore, even though that in itself has less of an environmental impact than a car, but even the long distances are getting easier to walk. It's not just to school and back either, it's throughout my daily life. Here's me walking over a major freeway, an experience that was actually really cool and exhilarating!