Trash at the ThunderCloud Subs Turkey Trot Race

Running a 5 miler race (the ThunderCloud Subs Turkey Trot) in the morning and having turkey for lunch on Thanksgiving in Texas is such an enjoyable day. I flew from Houghton, Michigan to Austin, Texas to spend my Thanksgiving with my family. During my stay in Texas, I ran a race with one of our prototype backpacks — the first prototype, which I had not tested in awhile. Continue Reading →

Article: Why Japan Wants Your Junk

With China no longer accept recyclable items from recycling programs and companies sometime soon, Japan “may be the first to seize the opportunity.” It is especially environmentally friendlier  and cheaper when “mining” electronic wastes. Large amount of minerals are collected at a much cheaper labor cost than actually digging a mine. How much minerals is actually is actually extraordinary. You can read more about it and a solution to China’s blockage in imported recyclables in the link below.

Article: Why Japan Wants Your Junk

Article: Woah! Seattle Kept 2 Million Plastic Straws Out of the Ocean in 1 Month

Actor and environmentalist Adrian Grenier created a campaign called Strawless in Seattle to eliminate the use of straws. Seattle participated in it, and in September alone, “over 2 million plastic straws were eliminated from the city.” Seattle citizens, 150+ Seattle business, restaurants, and venues participated in it to help reduce the amount of trash from plastic straws.

Article: Woah! Seattle Kept 2 Million Plastic Straws Out of the Ocean in 1 Month – Here’s How

Since plastic straws are one of the smallest single-use items that we throw away (Americans use over 500 million plastic straws every day), it causes large amount of trash. By convincing people to limit their use of single-use plastics, it would decrease the rate of trash produced. So start going straw-less.

Three Groups Cleaning up Their Communities and Parks

The power of volunteering (during an event or during free hours) can make a huge difference in a community, especially in picking up trash. Below are three articles that describe the positive effect of picking up trash on both a environmentally and community level.

Article 1: First Dash for Trash in Ardmore is a clean sweep

A group of 140 individuals in Ardmore got together to pick up trash in a two-hour span. Towards the end, awards for different categories were given to teams who participate, like “most interesting piece of trash” and “most valuable piece of trash.” For their first annual trash pick-up, the teams managed to make their community cleaner, while still enjoy the experience.

Article 2: Lady Longhorns donate time to better their community

The United volleyball, Keep Laredo Beautiful, and the Longhorns’ volleyball programs teamed up together to clean up the Bartlett Park Soccer Complex on a Sunday. They laid out gravel pathways, planted plants, and picked up trash under four hours. Committing time and effort to make Laredo beautiful for generations to come, while having volunteers learn to give back to the community and respect the environment.

Article 3: Volunteers collect 3,000 pounds of trash on Coastal Cleanup Day

Over 700 volunteers picked up more than 3,000 pounds of trash from the 261 miles of land they covered in under 3 hours. Seventeen sites across the Erie County were cleaned up under that time. The program that they volunteered for is called Lake Erie International Coastal Cleanup, which has been going on for fifteen years.

After reading those articles, what can YOU do for your community to make it cleaner?

 

 

Trash Picking during a Run with my Running Buddy

A few days before I left to Houghton, MI to continue my studies in mechanical engineering, I ran with a good friend of mine whom I made while in my high school cross country team. He and I ran about six miles, and during the run, I picked 34 pieces of trash (image below of the trash). The first few pieces of trash between miles 1 and 2.5 didn’t take up much space, but from there, I encountered many more pieces of trash to the point where I couldn’t pick up any more.

For only six miles, this is the most amount of trash that I have picked up so far in a run.