Evan Davis

(not a reflection) I’m not allowed to add any more actions so just for my memory I am going to write my actions here: mindful + distraction free eating, 30 min walk a day, tend to a garden and promote a sharing economy.

For transportation— in order to reduce the amount that I drove, I planned out routes first so that I could do the errands I needed in one stretch instead of driving back and forth. When I needed something small, I walked to the corner store near my house and just got the one thing to avoid making unnecessary trips. Also, I slept through two of my evening classes this week which unintentionally reduced my carbon emissions!

For community this week, there were a couple ways that I engaged with folks around me. Firstly, I went to go help pick one of my coworkers raspberries. I spent about an hour scouring the raspberry bush and picked all the ripe ones off the bush. He let me take some home and also gave me kale seeds from his plants and red currants to take as well. I got to see what sort of projects he was working on around the house and we chatted a bit about cars as well. My coworkers children are my age now, but he still has their childhood swing set in the backyard. He mentioned to me that he kept it up for any visitors that that he may have that have kids, though after sharing this notion he said “well, we actually don’t have many visitors anyway.” Which really struck me a bit more than I thought it would. I reflected on my apprehension to spend time with folks I don’t know well and I realized after this encounter that I don’t have to be someone’s best friend to join them to help them out or to have a cup of coffee or other small pleasantries. I guess I have almost become accustomed to thinking of any connection below small talk as intimate and personal, something that must be earned. Though, isn’t just being people enough to justify a connection? This is a musing more for myself, but one I have been pondering since then.
The second thing I did was attend a few workshops in my hobby space. I chatted with the people there which is something I usually would not do, as I prefer to keep to myself. This was nice though as I felt like I was sharing an experience with others who understood.

In regards to water, my goal was taking 5 minute showers and no plastic straws. For the five minute showers, I was able to hang my watch on a caddy in the shower and watch it as I shower. My showers are usually 20ish minutes but I was truly shocked when I was able to condense everything I do comfortably in 5 minutes. When I finished my first 5 minute shower, I stood there with the water off just wondering… what am I doing for the rest of the time I am in the shower usually? I am really just standing around and taking so much extra time between each thing that it sums to 20 minutes. I took all my showers this week in 5 minutes and it was barely a change in my life, I wasn’t distraught or felt like I needed more time. This is a practice I will 100% continue because it is so simple and saves so much water.

I also reduced my straw usage, which was a little weird of a goal to me because I don’t use straws to drink water but I think all the other goals didn’t seem like something I could feasibly do to report back in one week, which is why I chose it. I do, however, drink a lot of take out coffee. I started using this tumbler and some reusable straws I had and bringing them to get coffee. This made a noticeable difference in the state of my car because I am usually cleaning out tons of plastic cups out of my car each week. Looking back, this is a bit shameful but now I am able to change and use this mug and straw for my daily coffee.

For my food related things, my goal was to join a CSA and get food from the farmers market. I did not end up finding a CSA to join, many of them are not accepting any more requests for the current season, which is understandable. I think I would also receive too much food so next season I will likely ask my roommates if they are wanting to pool in and we can share.

I did go to the farmers market; I got lettuce, carrots, peaches, raspberries and cherries! This is pretty usual for the produce I get at the store, but these tasted way better!! I was very satisfied with how my bag looked with my produce so I am attaching a photo. We discussed in class small groups a bit of the isolation that exists within the food industry in the US. This is something that I have come increasingly more aware of over the last year. I have actually made a lot of changes to source things that I want and need from “real” people (i know who is making the product and where it comes from). This is a little difficult to do with some things for daily living like personal care products, but thankfully is quite easy to do in my hobby-spheres.

Though, this week I was thinking a lot about grocery stores. Around Wednesday I really wanted to go to the store to get more produce because I had run out of everything but an apple and bananas. I began to unravel a thought regarding convenience and food in my life. Convenience has brought us things like grocery stores that keep stock of everything all of the time, though in turn has increased exploitative practices to keep up with the demands of everything all the time in our culture. I chose not to go to the store and wait patiently until Saturday so that I could get my produce there. I will continue this practice of sourcing my food in a way that encourages patience and gratitude for what I am able to access at the farmers market.

I also did a food waste audit. I think this was a good week to do it because I definitely threw away more than I usually do because my grocery cycle was coming to an end (two ish weeks). I noticed that I threw away a lot of scraps of produce, like the last few things in my drawer that I had forgotten about. This was good to see because I will be able to shift my food eating to simply eating the rest of something instead of “saving” it for later.

I focused on discovering about renewable energy in my area and powering down my computer when I wasn’t using it.

Honestly, the computer thing was hard to remember for the first few days, especially when I would be working at my desk and then just slip into bed for the night only to forget about my computer being on. About mid week, I realized I would have to build it into my routine or else I would just not do it. So I started thinking “phone, keys, wallet, computer” when I was leaving the house and then equated taking my meds at night with turning off my computer. This has been working, though I think just another week or so and it will be a little more natural, it was just slightly clunky at first because I have never thought about it before.

I learned that Multnomah County is part of the pledge to run on 100% renewable energy by 2050 and that Oregon as a whole requires large energy companies to source at least 5% of their energy from a renewable source. The initiative started in 2007 and has been slightly scaling up the requirement from companies to source renewable energy which is currently at 27% and then in 2040 it will go up to 50%. In this same sector of their website, they have a page for individuals that provide information on renewable energy in the home.

For session one, I chose to reduce single use plastics and prevent recycling contamination. To reduce single use plastics, I chose to bring around my tiny hydro flask mug for drinks that weren’t water, carry silverware to work, and used the single reusable ziplock that I had for my snacks. Regarding recycling contamination, I researched for about an hour on recycling facilities in Portland (where I live) and took a deeper dive on disposing rarer items in recycling.

My single use plastic reduction went pretty well, I ended up drinking a lot of coffee at home rather than going to get coffee because I did not want to get the cup, so I ended up saving money. I also realized that one of my reusable straws fit perfectly in the mouth of the mug with a little grip so it wouldn’t fall out, that was nice because I like using straws. With this focus, I did notice how much plastic is in my house and how it’s used. I had a bit of a crisis over plastic trash bags and what other options there are, then had another crisis about greenwashing of household products.

Recycling was interesting, I found out that a lot of the nifty ways to recycle things (ie batteries in the glass container) is not applicable to apartment complexes and you still have to dispose of them at recycling facilities. Also, Scrap, the creative reuse, will take a lot of stuff that you may recycle as many people may use them for creative projects. I looked into what they accept and am hoping to keep a small stash of things I might toss and bring it there.