Is it more important to Reduce, Reuse or Recycle? - WAC

Is it more important to Reduce, Reuse or Recycle?

     Think about the last time that you helped the environment. Did you limit your utilities usage (water, gas, electrical)? Did you switch to renewable energy? Was it by sorting your bottles into plastics aluminum and glass? These are all examples of the three main methods of helping take care of the environment. They are know as the 3 R's, Reducing, Reusing, and Recycling. These are all big things that definitely help the environment, but which one is the most efficient? I am here to tell you that reducing is the most effective method. There are many reasons why this is the best method, but I will mention 3 main reasons. Firstly, most companies are trending towards reducing as the most effective method of being environment friendly. Secondly,when you reduce your waste, you entirely avoid creating it in the first place. Lastly, this method is the most versatile to all aspects of the environment as well as takes the least amounts of extra work. Now, lets know why exactly these are true.

     Companies are starting on the trend of reducing their waste in preference to reusing or recycling and is and is greatly supported by the consumer. In the SENCER article "Is It More Important to You to Reduce, Reuse or Recycle?" It says in paragraph two "larger-scale business initiatives often focus on reduction of the use of natural resources as preferable to simple reuse or recycling." This definitely is moving in the right direction because if all companies are reducing their consumption of natural resources, it helps reduce on an extremely large scale. This is also exemplified in the article "What Is Reduce, Reuse & Recycle?" by Bethany Wieman, where it says in paragraph two "Some companies, however, are getting more efficient with their product packaging to save resources". This is my first reason on why reducing is the most effective method

     If you avoid creating the waste in the first place, then there is no point to do any of the other main methods. This is supported in the text "What Is Reduce, Reuse & Recycle?" by Bethany Wieman, where it says in paragraph two "The most essential way to reduce waste is to avoid creating it in the first place."If this is the case, there is little significance of reusing or recycling. This is because if you put it into context reusing is just another way of reducing. If you use reusable items then you reduce the amount of one use items and end up making less trash . Shown in the quote from the same article, "[Re-suing is] investing in items that can be reused --- for example, using cloth tote bags when you shop" As I explained, just another way of reducing. Reducing is also much preferable to recycling because this means less trips from big machines that release excess amounts of CO2 into the air. As shown in the video "The math of trash" by KQED, it quotes "There is 22 billion pounds of CO2 put into the air through garbage trucks alone [in the year]" This is my second reason why reducing is the best method.

     Reducing is a low effort activity that can affect the environment on an extremely drastic level. When you reduce the amount you waste, it doesn't take much effort at all, and also doesn't use machinery. As shown in the article "When Recycling is Bad for the Environment" by the Discover Magazine, it quotes in paragraph 9 "Plastic sorting can be done manually, but it’s tedious and labor-intensive". This further shows why recycling is a hassle unlike reducing. This is also further explained in the SENCER article "Is It More Important to You to Reduce, Reuse or Recycle?" in paragraph three "consumers can reduce simply by cutting back and making small changes". It all comes down to you in reducing, and starts with what you do at your home. It can be something as reducing your shower time or storing your leftovers. This is my final reason why reducing is the best method.

     In conclusion, you now know that reducing is the most efficient, effective, and low effort method of the 3 R's. Reducing takes an important aspect of all of our lives and doesn't have to be huge. When reusing, its like you are reducing because you are reducing the amount of products you are throwing away from not being reused. Recycling isn't that healthy for that environment due to the carbon emission of the trucks and is also cost effective. Clearly you can see the reducing is the best method and is even supported by most companies. Now, I am going to leave you with this question, are you going to start reducing your waste? If so, then always remember, every small act counts, and all starts with reducing.

Geologic Time - Project Blog: Weekly Blog #4

Photo of the Project

Summary

During this project, I learned a lot of things. A lot of which involving rocks. But most importantly, I learned about the stages that earth went through in its life time and why that matters so much. The earths history can be divided into different time periods. These time periods are known as the Precambrian, Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and the Cenozoic eras. I studied in the Cenozoic era, and learned many things. The Cenozoic era is the most recent eras of time, actually leading up to the present. This era was the age of the mammals, and included all of the animals that we have today. The continents of the world changed drastically and several super continents broke up in this period.

Backwards Looking - In what ways do you think you need to improve?

I feel like I could have improved on the whole aesthetic of the piece overall. As an artist and one that pays attention to how pleasing your work is to look at, I feel like that I lacked a proper sense of aesthetic and creativity to be put into this piece. What I mean by creativity is just the whole idea of creating more original ideas for an interactive board, as well as adding more details in the art. I just mainly think that I could have improved by paying more attention to neatness and details on the board. This is what I feel like I could have improved on. 

Inwards Looking -What was especially satisfying to you about either the process or the finished product?

I think something that was extremely satisfying that came out of this project was the amount of information we were able to provide others with about each era. I was expecting the board to not be filled with as much information as we ended up having and i'm quite happy that this was the case. I am also quite happy that we decided to go with the wheels as the animals portrayal. I feel like this was especially satisfying because we were told that they ended up looking quite nice so that made us feel good.

The Geologic Time Mini Project Begins! - Weekly Blog #3

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e5/65/38/e56538d8492a42246bd84e00306dd674.png

Summary

This week in science, we were introduced to our geologic times project. In this project, our task is to create a visual of all the eras and the key events that conspires in them. The different eras we had to study where the Precambrian era, Paleozoic era, Mesozoic era, and the Cenozoic era. I learned that in the Cenozoic era, there was the rise if the mammals. This era is the latest era of all, and leads into the present. In this era, mammals dominated the earth. This era was extremely important, mainly due in part to the major areas of evolution. Birds, plants, insects, and mammals all started to evolve into what they are like today. In the later parts of this era, or about 100,000 years ago, humans started to rise. This is what I learned this week in science.

S&EP - Constructing Explanations

This week, I was able to figure out what the key features of the Cenozoic period were through extensive research and recording my findings. I evaluated information to explain what the Cenozoic era represented and why its important. I constructed an explanation of what types of key events, geological changes, and the types of plants and animals of my era. With this information I was able to further advance my understanding of the topic in order to make the visual representation this project demands as a result.

XCC - Structure and Function

I believe that there is strong connection between structure and function in this era. I think of this because of the structure that we were able to form in society. When the mammals evolved into humans, we were able to build the structure of ethics, and be able to judge whats right and wrong. This gives the function of a, well, functional society. I know that this is stretching it a little bit but it is still in the Cenozoic era and it does relate to these concepts so that why I included it. Without being able to build the structure of a functional society, we wouldn't be able to function.

Geology Time!: Weekly Blog #2

http://geologydegree.org/career-options-geology-majors/

Summary:

This week in science, we learned about the different states of rocks. These states of rocks are igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic.Igneous rock is formed form magma or lava being cooled down and hardens. Sedimentary rock is formed form sediments being pressed together into a rock. Metamorphic rock is formed when existing rocks go through heat and pressure. The changes from each of these forms to the next is known as the rock cycle. The law of uniformitarianism is the law that processes that happened in the past are recurring until today. We also learned about landforms such as the oceanic crust and the continental crust. Following this, we learned about divergent, convergent, and transform boundaries.

S&EP: Using Models

This week, we had the privilege  of doing a lab in class. This lab involved using starburst to represent the changes that rocks go through. In this lab. we were able to construct a conceptual models of the changes that a rock goes through. These states being, metamorphic, igneous and sedimentary rock. I was able to represent and understand phenomena when I preformed simulations of each of these changes. For the metamorphic rock, we pressed together all the sediment (starburst bits) into a bumpy ball like shape. We then applied pressure to make it into a sedimentary rock that resembled a smooth ball. With a lot more pressure we then flattened the shape into a metamorphic rock. After this we took part of the flattened shape and heated is up in a microwave. This came out as magma (melted starburst) the cooled and hardened into an "igneous rock"

XCC: Stability and Change

There is a great example of stability and change in something like the rock cycle. For an example, The state of rock is constantly changing from one state to the next. The system that I will use as this example would be of course the rock cycle. The changes gone through from igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary are interchangeable. Each of these processes can go from either one to the next. For an example, a metamorphic rock can turn into a sedimentary rock through weathering and erosion. There is a sense of instability in this system because each of these states are constantly changing from each part of the cycle to the next. It might be in one state for an extended period of time, but will eventually change into something totally new. It is stable however, because these changes will happen quite slowly, and each state of rock has its fair share before changing to another.