Saint Louis Zoo

One of my challenges was to pick up 5 pieces of trash per day.  It was obvious to me that it had quite an impact. Yesterday my husband and I saw In The Heights at Stages in Kirkwood.  When the musical was over, I found myself picking up programs and fliers discarded by other patrons.  I picked up 11 pieces,  

Today is our last day of the challenge.  Thank you to our captain and all who participated. We have an amazing zoo with awesome employees and volunteers.  Looking forward to our next one!

North St. Louis is where most landfills or other waste sites are located, which primarily affects Black Americans.

The quote that anti-racism work and environmental justice in the present age must go hand-in-hand, and you cannot be an advocate of one without the other, was really thought provoking. It was painful and infuriating to read about how hazardous waste, industrial waste, and other toxin get funneled into Black and Brown communities.

I'm seeing more people carrying around reusable water bottles so they can avoid disposable cups and straws. More restaurants are not automatically putting straws into drinks.

It is terrifying to learn that hundreds of thousands of microplastics get into our water systems and harm animals, wildlife, and ourselves each time we wash our clothes. We drink and otherwise ingest the plastics through water and eating plants and animals. They harm our endocrine systems and harm fertility and babies. Purchasing clothes with...

Not all bioplastics are recyclable, and those that are are only recyclable in facilities with the right conditions to recycle them, and few such facilities are available. I found it really hard to figure out if bioplastics are accepted by my city's waste management, which makes me think they aren't.

It was inspiring to be able to lend a hand and work together to make incremental steps toward building community spaces all can enjoy in a clean enviornment.

No matter how diligent I am about recycling and avoiding purchasing and discarding plastics, there are always some plastics that reach the landfill, because they aren't recyclable, and so much of what we use everyday is made of plastic or packaged in plastic!

It was so wonderful to host a watch party to view the Frontline documentary on the plastics industry. I got to learn more about the values of my guests, was happy to learn that many of our values, and our concerns about what we had learned, were shared. I discovered that several already had sustainable practices of their own that we could learn...