Have I created any ripple effects during this challenge?

Yes I have got my whole household cutting back on as much waste as possible and as ive started to take up some of the other challenges from other students in the group my girlfriend has joined me 3 minute showers and meatless mondays are now part of our lives.

Have I learnt something new about how change happens?

Yes I find that people in my life seeing me putting my changes into practice they have asked questions and decided to try these things as well, what I learnt was that people are more curious than I thought and if you explain the Why to them they will try the How.

1. Think about what you believed when you started this challenge. For example, what did you think was possible or not possible? Have your beliefs changed since you started?

As I’ve said before in this challenge I’m the type of person that starts into something without thinking too much about it and I like to figure things out as I go, so my beliefs before hand would have been open minded and confident in achieving my goal of cutting down my waste. Has it been harder than I first thought, yes I’d say so but once I got over the first few bumps in the road it’s been ok. The beliefs that have changed since I’ve started were more from looking at other students challenges and then deciding to slowly try and incorporate what there doing into my daily life too.

2.  Do you notice that you favour some «background conversations» over others as you go about your day?

I think certain background conversations (not enough) can take over for me when I’m tired and ill prepared for whatever I’m doing so the “easy” choice can take over then. Preparation has really been key for me in being able to avoid the pitfalls, also being honest with myself and knowing when those pitfalls will most likely occur(weekends and when out and about with friends)

3.  Do you still have any beliefs that stop you from trying to make larger changes?

I think the only area where I might fall down would be in talking to strangers about my beliefs and what is good practice for the environment instead of what there doing, I’d never like to come across as being that preachy person who’s message gets lost in the way their delivering it. So I need to work on that 

– How is your challenge going? Are you tired or finding it difficult, or is it going well?

It’s going well I’ve learned to spot when I’m going to struggle so if I’m well prepared I can handle it, weekends were a bit of a challenge for me at the start but now I’m more prepared for them its gotten easier. We have a lot of assignments due in the next few weeks so I presume that will make the challenge that bit harder too. Ftom looking at other peoples challenges I’m starting g to be more conscious of my water use and how much meat I eat so when this challenge is over I might try and give some new ones a try.

Have you ever stood up for something you believe in? Did anyone join you?

There was a girl getting hassled on the bus last month by 2 young lads and I asked her was she ok and told the 2 young lads to cop on and leave her alone (with a few more swear words involved) nobody else was on the top deck of the bus so there wasn’t anyone else to help.

Have you ever wanted to stand up for something, but didn’t? What stopped you and why did you Not stand up.

I suppose in certain conversations regarding environmental issues I haven’t stood up before. I Didnt want to stand out from the crowd and go against my peers because I wouldn’t be the biggest fan of confrontation and I didn’t feel I was educated enough on it.

Which systems influence my challenge?

There’s a number of systems that influence my challenge, My Family system which has been very supportive, helped me along this journey and even joined in, my friends system who haven’t probably been as supportive but are starting to slowly change and then there’s the Retail system (supermarkets & convenience stores) I done my second weekly shop of the week yesterday and found it easier when I knew what I was looking for I managed to get all the food that I wanted without plastic which was a success, what I did notice though is how much needless plastic keelings use on all there products, keelings are the biggest fruit producer in Ireland and the majority of there products are grown in Dublin which is a very good thing for the environment, there packaging is another story though so I’ve decided to email them telling them that they’ve lost me as a customer because of this and asking them why they can’t package the fruit in a more environmentally friendly way anyone else that wants to do this can do it here https://keelings.ie/contact-us/ , it probably won’t make any difference but I said it can’t do any harm.

How can I influence these systems?

As I mentioned above my first step was to stop buying plastic and my second step was to email keelings letting them know they’ve lost me as a customer and asking them why they don’t cut down on plastic as there product doesn’t need to be packaged in it. 

I worked in the retail industry for many years and I’ve seen firsthand the waste (plastic & food waste) that is created in stores a lot of it completely needless, this is what has inspired me to start the BCES course in DCU to learn and get a qualification in this area so I can try to change the retail system. I think my experience working in retail combined with the BCES course will give me an edge in dealing with people in the retail industry because I know where there coming from and hopefully I’ll be able to show them a different more environmentally friendly way of doing things in the future.

Has this experiment been how you expected? 

I didn’t have too many expectations for this challenge, I’m an open-minded person and like trying new things so I throw myself into things without much thought. When I picked reducing waste as my challenge I certainly didn’t think it was going to be as hard as it has turned out. There really is plastic on everything and there usually the cheaper option too.

When do you like to follow along with what the group is doing?

I find the weekend was much harder to keep to the challenge as I was “out and about” more and therefore wasn’t properly prepared, what I found the hardest so far was on Sunday when I was slightly hungover 😅 and made a trip to my local convenience store, This was my first real collapse of the challenge so far as I think everything i bought in the store had plastic on it because I was in a negative frame of mind ie tired and hungover and couldn’t have cared less about waste at that time🙈 so I went along with the crowd (my friends). I suppose you could say it was a learning point, that I probably need to be more prepared in future and not just take the easy option. 

I done my first weekly shop of the challenge yesterday, It went well bar the fact that it took me about twice as long as it usually would trying to find all the usual foods I get without any plastic on them. My first aim was to get all my fruit & veg for the week without any plastic which actually proved harder than I thought , finding grapes that aren’t covered in plastic isn’t easy but I managed to succeed I’ll take that small victory 😂. The toiletries section of my shopping was where I fell down I couldn’t find any mouthwash or toothpaste without purchasing plastic ,any not too expensive options out there feel free to let me know. What I really did notice after my shopping was that a lot of the “easy” “quick” options all involved plastic and that an added benefit of trying to cut down on plastic waste is that you have a lot healthier diet.

Autopilot- I smiled when I got the text message this morning regarding autopilot, because after consciously spending my time shopping in the supermarket to avoid plastic waste I then went to my local butchers to get my meat for the week ordered & paid for it then walked out of the shop with it and only realised walking out the door that I was holding it all in a plastic bag 🙈🙈. 

Is there any non-plastic reusable options to put meat in to carry it home or do I have to go into my local butchers with a pyrex dish next week😂?

I’ve spent the first few days of the challenge monitoring how much waste I create in my day to day life, it really made me notice how much unnecessary waste I create on a regular basis. The next step for me now is to start reducing that waste and to get into the habit of consciously thinking about the waste that’s created from every item I purchase. I’ll be doing my weekly shop in a few days so that will be an interesting and learning experience, I’ll report back then.