Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 10: Overall Project Reflection

My SMART goal was to start recycling at my apartment complex. I changed a few things over the past 10 weeks in order make my goal more difficult to attain because it was fairly easy to keep up with recycling my aluminum cans, plastic and glass at first. A few weeks in I decided to start cutting down on the amount of carbonated water I was drinking because not only was it not as healthy as regular water but it also created more recycling then need be. Another thing I added was recycling paper. It was almost like I completely forgot that you can recycle paper as well until the last few weeks.

My SMART goal was very successful. I started something that I will definitely continue doing for quite awhile. I learned that I took advantage of the ease of recycling that I have at my home in the cities. At my house we have a recycling bin and it gets picked up on the end of our driveway once every two weeks. At school I had to make much more of an effort to collect the recycling and then bring it to the recycling center. I really wish that my landlord would have been more receptive to the whole recycling idea but on the other side of things I got my roommate to recycle as well so that was very exciting.

I benefited from doing this eco-chic lifestyle change because it taught me to reduce the amount of waste I leave on earth. I want to be as green as possible and this was a good first step to take. It's always really easy to do something when you have the resources necessary around you to do it. I learned how to be proactive and find the resources needed to recycle when I didn't have a pick up schedule that made it easy for me.

I am really glad that my roommate decided to adopt this lifestyle change as well. It was so nice to see how much less trash we produced when we started keeping a recycling bin. It made me happy that I was able to influence someone else in my life even if it was only one person. I look forward to continuing this behavior and hope to influence some of the other people in my apartment complex. Or at least spark their interest when I walk out of my apartment with a few bags full of recyclable items.

For other people who are interested in making a lifestyle change I would say that no matter what your goal is don't get too comfortable with it or get discouraged if you don't meet your goal. It is important to make your goal a challenge so if you see yourself consistently meeting your goal don't be afraid to make it more difficult. Also, don't get discouraged if you don't meet your goal if you need to make a change or just try again the following week.

I am looking forward to continuing my lifestyle change for years to come!!! Hope you had a good time following my experience.

Blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 10 hosted by Amy@Eco-Chic with Amy.

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 9: Weekly Update

My SMART goal was to start recycling at my apartment complex.Things are going well again this week. I am doing much, much, much better with not using as many plastic bottles. I realize that I was pretty bad a few weeks ago but I have definitely made a turn in the right direstion towards completely fixing that problem. I have also noticed that I save more money when I don't produce as many plastic bottles :) always a plus!!!

I decided to add a new component to my SMART goal, which is to start recycling paper items. I just noticed that for whatever reason I was recycling cans and plastic bottles but was completely forgetting about the fact that I could recycle old assignments and paper that is no longer necessary for me to have. This is something that I hope to get better on and remember to do! I'll check in next week and let you know how things are going :)

Blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 9 hosted by Amy@Eco-Chic with Amy

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 8: Weekly Update

My SMART goal was to start recycling at my apartment complex. Another week has come and gone and so has another trip to the recycling center :) Things went very well this past week. I am doing a good job of meeting the original goal that I set for myself. My roommate also continues to do a good job with recycling her items as well.

One thing that I did much better on this week was my intake of carbonated water (which comes in individually packaged water bottles). I am proud that I was able to cut down on this and hope to soon be able to take this beverage out of my diet completely.

I am really hoping that my landlord has not forgotten about the breif discussion we had a few weeks ago. I would really like to see him take some initiative to have a company do a pick up for us once every two weeks. I believe a lot of the tenants would partake in this. It is something that I will possible mention again next time I see him. Hope everyone elses SMART goals are going well!!! :)

Blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 8 hosted by Amy@Eco-Chic with Amy.

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 7: Weekly Update

 My SMART goal was to start recycling at my apartment complex because I was not offered a service. Things continue to go very well for me. I have been reaching my goal which makes me feel good knowing that I am making a difference, even if I only am one person. My roommate is also continuing to do a good job of recycling her items as well.

This week I didn't do a great job of meeting my goal to drink less carbonated water. I am thinking that I am just going to stop completely and not buy it. It will save me money and then I won't be tempted as well. There are many different things that I could be putting into my body instead of water that isn't that great for you.

I talked to one of the other tenants in my apartment complex. She is an older lady. I asked her if she would be interested in having me collect her recyclable items, she said that she would "try" to remember to start collecting. So we will see how that goes. I often help her bring her grocieres in so it would not be that hard to grab the recyclable things when I do that. I hope that she attemps collecting her items.

I will be going to the recycling center again early next week. I am really proud that my roommate and I have stuck to this goal. I am looking forward to keeping it up the rest of this school year.

Blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 7 hosted by Amy@Eco-Chic with Amy.

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 6: Weekly Update

My SMART goal was to start recycling at my apartment complex. I am on week 6 of my lifestyle change and so far I have been doing an excellent job. This week I made another trip to the recycling center. I also found that I didn't use as many recyclable items as I did in previous weeks. This was a big accomplishment for me, I really cut down the amount of carbonated beverages (mostly water) that I was drinking. I still think I could do a better job of drinking more regular tap water though.

I am very proud of how my roommate is doing as well with the recycling. Every once and awhile I need to remind her to recycle though because I will find some kind of glass or plastic container in our garbage. I am happy that I have seen her adopt this change as well.

I finally got a chance to briefly talk to the landlord and the idea of getting a recycling company to pick up here was not well received. I am thinking about possibly getting some facts to present to him that show the importance of recycling.

In the mean time I will continue recycling and encouraging my roommate to do the same. If I can't convince the landlord to start having a company pick up, I may talk to a few of the neighbors I know and ask them if they would want me to start collecting their items as well.


Blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 6 hosted by Amy@Eco-Chic with Amy.

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 5: Weekly Update

My SMART goal was to start recycling at my apartment complex. I am on week 5 of my lifestyle change and so far I have been doing an excellent job. The first few weeks of this change I would have to tell myself not to throwing things away and that I am working on recycling. Now it is almost just like second nature to go to my recycling bin... which happens to be right by the garbage so I have no excuses when throwing things out :)

In week 4 of this change I decided to challenge myself more by trying to cut out the number of recyclable items I am producing. The biggest reason I produce so much recycling is because I am highly addicted to this carbonated water that only Target sells. In the next few weeks I am really going to focus on replacing this carbonated water with regular water from a tap. Hopefully I will be able to ween myself off of it because not only am I producing unnecessary waste, I am also drinking water that is not the healthiest for me.

I am very proud of myself for sticking to this as long as I have. Today in school I even caught myself with a bottle, about to throw it away, but I remembered just in time :) It is getting easier at home like I said to remember to recycle, but at school it is still difficult. Recycling options are not as evident as trash options for throwing things away. Hopefully this will continue to get better with time.

I look forward to another week of recycling and making my second trip to the center next week!

Blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 5 hosted by Amy@Eco-Chic with Amy.

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 4: Weekly Update

My SMART goal was to start recycling at my apartment complex. This week I did a good job of recycling all of the recyclable items I used at my apartment and disposing of them in the proper container that I purchased for at home use. I also took my first trip to the recycling center. It was pretty painless ;) and I will probably start going more often because I had quite a few extra bags of recyclable items. I go through a lot of plastic items... this is something that I am going to start working on in addition to just recycling my items.

A challenge that I ran into is making sure to recycle the recyclable items I use at school too. Sometimes I get too caught up in the convenience of a garbage can. I really just need to hang on to the item until I find the proper container. I caught myself doing this once of twice over the course of the week. If I am making conscious efforts to change this at home I should be doing it at school as well.

It felt good to dispose of my items at the recycling center. It put things in perspective to see the items be put at the center instead of in a landfill. It may take some extra time for me, but it is the only earth we get so I know it is worth it.

Next week I am going to start trying to cut down on the amount of plastic items I produce each week. I realized that is completely unnecessary that I produce that many recyclable items in just a few weeks. Going forward I am going to try to limit my recyclable items to one trash can full, or the equivalent of, every week.

I am looking forward to seeing how my new challenge goes. Have a good one!

Blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 4 hosted by Amy@Eco-Chic with Amy.

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 3: Weekly Update

 My SMART goal was to start recycling at my apartment complex. This week I did a very good job of collecting all my recyclable items and putting them in my container. I will be going to the recycling center either this Friday or next Monday. 

I did not have any challenges come up this week with my SMART goal. My roommate had done an awesome job with all of her recyclable materials as well: two is better than one :)

I am happy that I decided to start recycling at my apartment complex, because although I am only one person I feel as though I am making a difference. Hopefully, I will be able to influence some of the people in my complex to start doing the same thing.

I still have not been able to talk to my landlord but I plan on doing so whenever I see him next. I am hoping he will listen to the benefits of having our apartment complex recycle and will decide it is a good investment for our building.


I am looking forward to the upcoming week and going to the recycling center. I will not make any changes to my SMART goal this week, but I will hopefully be in contact with my landlord.

Have a good one!

Blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 3 hosted by Amy@Eco-Chic with Amy.

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 2: Weekly Update

My SMART goal was to start recycling at my apartment complex since a service is not offered for the tenants. I am very happy with how the second week went of my eco-chic lifestyle change. I realized that I have a lot more recyclable items I use in the span of a week then I originally thought. My trash can I bought is already full!!!

The only challenge that I have run into is that I am going to have to either go to the recycling site more often then originally planned or store full recycling bags in my storage closet at my apartment. I think I will probably collect for two or three weeks at a time then go to the recycling site. That way I can store some bags in the storage closet but it won't get to full.

I am very excited about how this is going far. It makes me feel better to not be creating so much trash every single week. Surprisingly, I think my roommate and I have cut the amount of trash we produced in half by recycling! I am looking forward to next week and continuing with this lifestyle change. I am going to talk with the landlord next time I see him about the possibility of getting a recycling service once every other week at our complex. Wish me luck!!!

Blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 2 hosted by Amy@Eco-Chic with Amy.

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 1: My SMART Goal

SMART Goal:
My SMART goal is to start recycling glass, paper, plastic, and aluminum at my apartment complex. Where I currently live trash is picked up multiple times throughout the week however, there is not an option to recycle. I would like to start collecting the materials that are recyclable and dispose of them at a recycling center.

There are many benefits of recycling the biggest being that it will save money and create jobs with its growing popularity. Other interesting facts about recycling are:

• The energy we save when we recycle one glass bottle is enough to light a light bulb for four hours.
• A national recycling rate of 30% reduces greenhouse gas emissions as much as removing nearly 25 million cars from the road. 
• Recycling prevents habitat destruction, loss of biodiversity, and soil erosion associated with logging and mining. 

From the second I moved into my apartment I had an issue with the fact that the landlords did not offer the option to recycle. Up to this point I haven't done anything about it and I am excited to finally make this change and start living a more eco-chic lifestyle.

Tonight I started to make the first changes necessary to reach my goal; I went to Target and purchased another trash can that I can place all my recyclable items in.  My roommate will also be partcipating in this change which means twice as many items will be being recycled. :)

Blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 1 hosted by Amy@Eco-Chic with Amy.

Welcome to Kristin's Green World!

Hello! I'm Kristin Danielson and my blog is going to be about making subtle changes in everyday life to make our earth a greener, more environmentally safe place.The picture above is of an uncontaminated, clean park. Unfortunately not all parks look like this anymore. Making people aware of the changes they can make to help keep our environment safe is the goal of Kristin's Green World.

There are 6 possible types of posts on my blog. They include:

1. Advocacy Project
2. Eye Openers
3. Reflections
4. Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change
5. Read 'n' Seed
6. Share and Voice

If you notice at the bottom of this post, the categories will be listed as labels. This post is has been labeled with all six kinds of posts.You will also see the number of each kind of post in my Labels Gadget at the top of the page. All post titles from now on will begin with one of the categories above.

The members of my web group are:

1. Amanda@AmandasWaterBottleWatch
2. Kristin@KristinsGreenWorld
3. Jacob@GettingGreenWithJake
4. Keith@KeithsGreenBike

You can subscribe to my blog by clicking the subscribe gadget in the gadget column. You can also follow my blog by clicking "Follow this Blog" in the gadget column. I am subscribed to all the blogs in my blog list gadget. You can see my complete profile and all the blogs I am following by clicking on "See Complete Profile."

Thank you for visiting Kristin's Green World. Please come back and visit often!

"Blogged for the Welcome Linky Party hosted by Amy@Eco-Chic with Amy."