Staying Sustainable

Here in Oregon, one of the most beautiful states, we pride ourselves on our gorgeous trees, mountains, and rivers. But, how can we ensure that we keep Oregon green? What can we do to preserve the beauty of this state for future generations? In this article, I’m going to help you learn some DIY projects and simple changes in habits that you and your family can carry out to feel good about how and where you live.

First, let’s talk compost. Your family can make a fun project of building a compost bin together! This is easier than it sounds, and can be especially beneficial for you if you have a garden. When you have a compost bin, you will take leftover food from meals and throw it in. Eventually, this food will be decomposed by microorganisms and become a form of dirt that is full of nutrients. When you have a compost bin or pile, you are wasting less food and creating less garbage. Only food should be put in the compost, never plastic, cardboard, glass, or other materials (you can recycle those!). You can even compost grass clippings from mowing your lawn, and yard trimmings. When you put your compost in your garden, it not only nourishes your garden, but you may even find surprise seeds popping up! Composting also conserves water, improves water quality, helps enrich old soil, and is more affordable when compared to buying fertilizer. Did you know that more than half of greenhouse gasses come from wasted food? Yikes. With composting, we can reduce greenhouse gasses.

Another great way to reduce waste and help the environment is by recycling! To see what you can recycle here in Eugene, visit the Eugene Recycling Website. The city is pretty picky about what you can recycle, but every little bit makes a difference. According to the Eugene Website, in 2022, people in Eugene generated 603,846 tons of garbage (that’s 140,365 tons more than in 2010), but 52.9% of waste was recovered. Eugene is trying to reach a goal of 60% of waste recovered, and with each person’s help, we can achieve that. According to Surfers Against Sewage, 400 million tons of plastic is produced every year, and 11 million tons end up in the ocean. This means that every human averages about 1,800 pounds individually every year. I also know that if you buy Nancy’s Probiotics products, even though the city does not accept them as recycling, they run their own opportunities for you to drop off containers so that they can reuse them. Also according to Surfers Against Sewage, 2.5 tons of carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere from just one ton of plastic, and over 1 in 3 fish caught for human consumption contains plastic. Our plastic production and utilization issue has gotten so bad that other species are involuntarily consuming plastic. That’s really unfortunate, so let’s work together to reverse it.

An obvious but surprisingly hard method to avoid extra waste is to reduce your use of plastic. This could mean buying the yogurt bins that are large, instead of a bunch of mini containers. It could also take the form of buying bars of soap, shampoo, or conditioner instead of plastic bottles. It could mean using reusable containers for your lunch, or washing ziploc bags after using them instead of throwing them away. Avoid buying food or items that are in lots of plastic packaging. 

Now, AI has become a huge part of modern life. It’s what brings up your search results, and you don’t even have control over that! However, AI is terrible for the environment, as it leaves a giant carbon footprint. According to Southern New Hampshire University, AI creates greenhouse gases, which result in biodiversity loss and can even increase extreme weather events. Coal and gas plants (required to power AI) rely on lots of freshwater to cool them down. This results in extreme water depletion. Therefore, each time you use Copilot or ChatGPT to generate ideas, you are using large amounts of water, releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and aiding in biodiversity loss. So, next time you need help coming up with something to draw or a name for your pet in a video game, brainstorm with a friend instead of using AI.

It’s true that all of this can be really depressing to read (but is all the while true and important information), so as not to ruin your day, I’m going to share some uplifting facts about the environment or ways that you may not know will help make a small difference. According to Circular Ecology, switching from the font “Arial” to the font “Century Gothic” saves 30% ink on printing. According to Starting with Us, the hole in the ozone layer is healing. Also according to this source, “Wales is currently planting over 5 million Euros worth of trees spanning the length of the country.” Additionally, “78% of marine animal species surveyed saw significant population growth after receiving Endangered Species Act protections.” This includes whales, manatees, and sea turtles. Even when it seems that the state of things are on a permanent decline, there are people in the world working to save the planet.

So, as the species who now seemingly control the state of the Earth, we have to make our environmental footprint indistinguishable if we don’t want future generations to be living in mountains of garbage instead of mountains of trees full of beautiful species. Wouldn’t it be crazy if one species became so invasive that it destroyed an entire planet? That’s where humans are heading. According to Scientists for Global Responsibility, global warming will become irreversible by 2050 or very soon after. That means that even by cutting back on emissions or directly removing carbon from the atmosphere, we can not reverse the damage done. You may think, “well, 2050 is really far away, surely someone will do something about it.” But that’s only 24 years away. And if any of the people in the world with the most control over that were going to do anything about it, don’t you think they would have already done something? Our only way to save the planet is to work together. We have to cut back on our emissions now, or we risk losing the beauty of every corner of our planet. It’s our Earth, and our responsibility. There is only one Earth, and we can’t be the ones to ruin it.