Today I went to meet up with a friend in town and when I met her she had bought hot chocolates for me and her. I was so distracted by the nice gesture I had completely forgot about my Ripples of Change challenge. It wasn’t until I went to put the cup into the bin I realised I had used a single use coffee cup. It annoyed me because I was doing so well with the challenge initially. Bar from this the challenge has been getting easier where I usually don’t even think about wanting to use plastic. I feel like I could definitely make this a long term habit and even start thinking about other ways I can be less wasteful in my day to day life

Receiving my day 12 Ripples text this morning influenced me to make today’s blog post about influencing. From me carrying around my own reusable water bottle I have influenced my brother and one of my friends to buy a bottle too. They thought my bottle was nice and wanted to know where I got it from. So thanks to me TK Maxx has two new customers and I feel like I am advertising for them. (Where’s my brand deal??) But there is a more important influence I had here. Both my brother and friend were super encouraging about me participating in this challenge and were wondering how they too can join in the challenge along side me. So even though they may have only bought their reusable bottles because they look cool but also this will encourage them to not buy single use bottles. Others however I have not influenced as much. My coworkers find it funny that I am always seen carrying around my bottle and searching for it when I lose it around the hotel. They don’t really understand what impact my boycott on plastic bottles and disposable coffee cups has on saving the environment but I believe all our small changes will have a global impact. 

So far I’m getting more and more used to this new habit of using less plastic and it feels as though this is a habit I want to continue after the 30 days. 

Since my last post I have been finding ways to make the challenge easier for myself. When I am on the go and in need of more water I need to find a place to fill up my reusable bottle instead of buying prepackaged water. To help with this, I discovered the website refill.ie which gives me locations of refilling stations around Ireland. 

I have also began to notice that I have been drinking lots more water in comparison to fizzy drinks or juices. This is due to the fact that it is much harder to find these drinks not in plastic bottles.

While I am in work it is so easy to just pick up the water bottles that are available to the staff but now I am using the water filling stations a lot more. 

For the entire month of October I will be trying to not use a single plastic bottle or disposable coffee cup in hopes of reducing my carbon footprint and inspiring others to do the same. 

For the past six days I have been making a conscious effort to carry around my own reusable bottle with me when I’m on the go. I have been so accustomed to buying bottles of water when I am out that it is taking time getting used to remembering to bring my bottle when I leave the house. 

Yesterday I ran into my first problem where I had forgotten my bottle when going to the gym as I am used to buying an energy drink in the vending machine there. Luckily, my gym has a water fountain which I had to continuously visit throughout my training.

The first few days have gone pretty well so far and I am feeling optimistic about completing this challenge.