There were no meetings for the Earth Month Challenge committee this semester. We were supposed to meet sometime in November but the times never really worked. Due to this I was not able to complete the project this semester. But I have started looking at the website and started making a list of pros and cons from last year’s Earth Month Challenge. I am also planning on coming up with some ideas over break. We are also planning on having some meetings starting next semester. Hopefully I will be able to dedicate more time next semester to this project.

My second year project is the Earth Month Challenge. Since there was a delay in organizing the whole project, I was unable to start the project. I recently received an email with the information about the project. So, now I am looking back at my experience for the Earth Month Challenge from last year and deciding what should be kept and what could be improved and how. We have not had our first meeting yet, but I am hoping to have it soon. In this meeting we are going to discuss what we are going to improve and how we are going to divide up the work. We will also be discussing new ideas and thoughts on how to make Earth Month Challenge a success. I will add more once we actually start working on this project.

Reusable water bottle I started using during Earth Month Challenge and still use it.

The second year project that I would like to be a part of is the Earth Month Challenge. I participated in the Earth Month Challenge as a part of ENR Scholars last year and learned a great deal from it. This project benefits the Columbus community as well as Ohio State in several ways. I also think that it spreads awareness about the environment that we are living in.

Last year, we picked our own challenge and worked on it for the entire four weeks of Earth Month. This was a great opportunity for me to learn and explore. I found several resources I could use, both on campus as well as outside in Columbus, to reduce waste. I also learned about the ways to reduce waste. I enjoyed the earth month challenge experience as all of my suite mates and I worked together to reduce waste and toxicity. I learned more about recycling and I started to recycle more than I ever did before. I can now spread awareness to my other friends and relatives about why reducing waste is important and how one should do it. I also got to learn a lot about my suite mates and friends as they joined me. It was a really meaningful experience for me.

I would like to be a part of planning the events and putting stuff together for earth month because first of all I want everyone to have as much fun as we did last year and also get more involved with ENR Scholars. I also want more people to participate in the Earth Month Challenge this time than last year. Also, I want to do something where I can do something for  ENR scholars. Earth Month Challenge provides me with this very opportunity and it is perfect.

The topic I chose for the earth month challenge was waste and toxicity. I am interested in this topic because I would really like to reduce the amount of waste I produce. Being in college has made it difficult to reduce the waste and one can only do so much. When I looked into what one can do to reduce the waste and toxicity, here is what one can do.

• Recycle – This is a great way to start to reduce waste and this can be done anywhere.
• Reuse – This is similar to recycling but instead you are using things that can be reused. For example, use water bottles instead of plastic bottles.
• Compost – This can be done at home. We can compost a lot of food and other materials which we normally throw away.
• Reduce shower time – This will reduce the waste of water.
• Try to reduce printing – Try to save the files on the computer and avoid unnecessary printing.
• Reduce make up use – Make up material contains a lot of toxins which can be reduced by wearing less make up or not wearing make up at all.
• Use natural shampoos and conditioners – Natural shampoos and conditioners contains less chemicals and they can be homemade which is much cheaper.
• Use public transportation or walk – This helps reduce fuel waste and also reduce the toxins that come from cars.
• Donate clothes rather than throwing them away – This would help reduce waste from clothes which are generally thrown away.
• Use biodegradable products – There are biodegradable soaps and moisturizers also available in the market.
• Use natural fibers rather than synthetics – Natural fibers degrade faster and easier than the synthetic fiber. Wool is a good example of a biodegradable product.
• Create medicines and food with longer expiration dates – This will reduce waste and toxicity. People throw away food and medicines after they expire. Longer expiration dates will help reduce this waste.
• Only buy what you need – Some people buy things that they really do not need and end up throwing it away.
• Print in grayscale – The ink used in printing is very toxic and when you use grayscale it reduces the amount of toxins.
• Use hand towels to wipe your hands instead of paper towels – This will reduce the waste of paper.

Campus or Columbus Resources:

Rumpke Waste Management Services provides environmentally friendly waste disposal solutions and recycling options. It would be helpful if someone needed help with recycling.

Compost Columbus is another great resource in the city of Columbus. They help the community by composting the food waste donated by the residents. This could help us compost food waste and reduce the amount of food that goes to the landfill.

Daybreak Lavender Farms is a store that sells handmade herbal soaps which are made out of 100% naturally occurring glycerin. This will help reduce toxic waste.

Online Resources:

http://www.diynatural.com/homemade-shampoo/

This is a helpful resource if someone wants to learn more about natural shampoos and soaps and how to make them at home for reasonable price.

http://www.recyclecolumbus.com/

This is a great way of finding out what and how to recycle.

http://www.goodwillcolumbus.org/

This is a good place to donate you clothes and also buy second hand clothes.

http://www.compostcolumbus.com/

This will help the person trying to compost more information on how and why one should compost and also about the procedure involved in composting.

Columbus is a big city and it is very exciting to live in the capital of Ohio. I chose the “Tea and Coffee” theme for my Columbus to-do-list. For this, I went to several local tea and coffee houses on North High Street. Usually, back home I used to get coffee from Starbucks and not any local coffee shops, so it was very interesting to see how different local coffee shops made their coffee. There were five tea and coffee places I visited.

One Line Coffee

The first coffee place I visited was called ‘One Line Coffee’. This coffee house is located in the short north. I took no. 2 bus from the Ohio Union COTA bus stop and got off at Price Ave. stop and walked to the One Line Coffee. They had a sign outside the door, so it was easily noticeable. When I entered the coffee shop, the whole place was filled with the aroma of coffee. The first thing I saw was the sign on the wall, which is shown in the picture on the right. They had hand poured coffee. They made the coffee in front of my eyes. The staff here was very friendly and welcoming. The service was also very quick. In one of the signs, they had stories about their farmers and how they stay in contact with them. They know where their coffee is coming from. The place was itself very lively and exciting. I would definitely recommend going to this place.

Impero

I visited this coffee place after visiting the One Line Coffee. It was only a five minute walk from the One Line Coffee to Impero Coffee House. This place was smaller than the One Line Coffee. Impero has a lot of different types of tea and coffee. They claim that they grow their  coffee sustainably. The coffee is roasted and ground locally. They also sell coffee in packages, but their prices are a little high. They have tea and coffee from all over the world. Some teas they have include roasted chestnut, earl grey and jasmine. They also have loose leaf tea, which was very impressive. I would go to this place again, if it was not too expensive.

Kafe Kerouac

Kafe Kerouac is located on N. High St also, but it is not located in the Short North. It is located on the complete opposite side from the Short North. Since I went there from the Ohio Union, I had to walk there. It is about a twenty minute walk from the Union to this place. Kafe Kerouac is located in a house like setting and was kind of difficult to find. This place is a Cafe and a bar. It is open till late, especially on weekends. This place has an attached room where they keep all the used books, which are sold for cheap prices. They have all kinds of books from fiction to literature. They host a lot of events as well. The day I went, they had a local band come in and play. Sometimes they have comedians come in as well. Some nights are game nights, while some nights are poetry nights. I would like to go there but, I would not recommend going in there at night.

Mission Coffee

This was another coffee house I visited. It is located in the Short North area. It is located on the Price Ave. which is on a side street. I took no. 2 bus from the Union to the Price Avenue and it was further on Price Avenue. This was one of my favorite coffee places. It was not cramped. It was very open and welcoming. They had very good seating arrangement as well. A lot of people seemed like they were having meetings in there. The coffee they had was hand crafted. They had foamed milk on nearly every drink. I was very content with my hot chocolate with foamed milk. They had chocolate bars which were made there and were pretty expensive. The salted chocolate bars were nine dollars each and I did not find that reasonable at all. They had their printed t-shirts which they were selling for twenty dollars each. But they also had music playing which was really nice. This was one of my favorites from all the coffee places so far.

Zen Cha Tea Salon

This was the only tea salon I had visited. It is located on the N. High Street in the Short North. It was really close to the Mission Coffee. It was only my first time visiting a tea salon. It was really nice environment with soft lighting. They had a lot of variety in tea. They had tea from essentially all over the world from Taiwan, England and a lot of other places. They had green tea, black tea, herbal tea and a lot of other kinds. I felt like the staff was very helpful. They let us smell different kinds of tea as well. The tea ranged from fourteen dollars to above twenty dollars. I would definitely recommend this place for tea lovers.

This was a great experience learning about the city of Columbus. It not only gave me the opportunity to explore the tea and coffee places, but also gave me the opportunity to explore the Short North area. I went to all the above places with my friend and we enjoyed a lot. Everything was very accessible by the COTA buses. Since most of the tea and coffee places were in the Short North, we visited some antique stores also and found some really interesting stuff. We also had a lot of fun learning about the different tea and coffee places and the stories attached to them. I would definitely recommend for someone wanting to complete this list to go with a friend. It is more fun that way. Also, I would not recommend going to all the places at once. It is more fun when you do it in parts. Overall, it was a very memorable experience.