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Say No to More Plastic

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Plastic consumption is increasing and wreaking havoc on the environment as it breaks down in ecosystems and spreads microplastics all over the world. Microplastics are defined as pieces of plastic debris that are less than five millimeters long. These tiny plastic particles are often found in the guts of marine animals and there are major concerns about human consumption of these microplastics when we eat seafood. We know little about the potential harm of microplastics in our bodies and research is still being done to analyze the effects of microplastic consumption.  Plastic generation in 2018 was 35.7 million tons in the United States alone with 4.20 million tons being attributed to just plastic bags. Plastic is shockingly unrecyclable as most materials are made out of mixed plastics, rather than just one type, making it nearly impossible for recycling facilities to break them down; less than 10 percent of plastics are actually recycled. Most plastic waste goes to landfills where...
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Curing Plant Blindness, an Insight into our Environment

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Plant blindness , an inability to see or notice plants in one's environment. This deficit in plant recognition was first coined in 1998 by American botanists, James Wandersee and Elisabeth Schussler. Despite making up about 80% of the biomass on Earth, forces such as our increasing time spent behind screens and urbanization have continued to push this trend. People are often overlooking plants as living organisms, alongside animals, leading to an underappreciation of plants. They're underrepresented in education, even in bio-heavy majors, and limit the future interest in the plant sciences and conservation efforts. Why should we care about plants? They're an important connection to the environment and provide people with our basics needs and numerous ecosystem services. They provide the oxygen that we breath, act as sources of natural products to household products and medicines that we use, and give us nutrition. The bread and cereal we consume daily are made from grains, ...
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Tackling Clothing Waste on Eckerd College's Campus

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  Tackling Clothing Waste on Eckerd College's Campus Tori Mullaney  Did you know that every year, nearly 90 million tons of clothing ends up in landfills across the globe? To put this in perspective, it is said the average American consumer throws away 70 pounds of clothing  a year.  This number is staggering, especially knowing that clothing is easy to recycle. In order to truly grasp this number, it is important to note the process of making clothing, what resources it uses, and how quickly clothing is being made. Then, we can grasp at why this waste is  detrimental   to our environment.  How is clothing made? The process of making clothing is a process that happens every second of everyday around the globe. With our global population so high, there is a strong need for clothing.  Clothing production can take place in factories, which contributes to our global CO2 emissions every year; this has a direct negative impact on our environment and can...
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Propellers Spinning Out Of Control, An Environmental Campaign

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The Issue:❌❓❗ A lack of policy and boating restrictions for preventative strike devices has led to an increase in environmental harm and many marine life deaths.  Design/Methods:💭 I created an educational pamphlet that was distributed on social media in an effort to educate the public on the issue of boat propellers. I also created a survey for people to take after they read and look over the pamphlet which encourages pubic participation. The survey is a quantitative way to measure my success.   Results: 🔍 87.5 % of people think propeller guards would help protect the environment 68.8 % of people think boat propellers damage the environment 93.8% of people think preventative strike devices should be required 87.5 of people think that boat propellers harm marine life More Results : 🔍💥 81.3 % of people think boat owners would benefit from preventative strike devices such as propeller guards 93.8 % of people think that propeller guards would help protect marine life 81.3 % of...
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Composting 101: Increasing Student Engagement with Composting at Eckerd College

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  About 30% of food gets wasted every year in the US & as a result, affects the livelihood of millions of Americans and the health of the environment. The massive amount of food wasted each year is unlike the number of people who struggle to gain access to food just to survive. Not to mention, large amounts of food waste have led to negative environmental impacts through poor waste management like landfills. Trash, plastic, and other harmful materials have a tendency to seep into the ground and contaminate local waterways. However, in contrast, composting breaks down organic nutrients from food waste and contributes back by preventing soil erosion, promoting plant growth, conserving water, and reducing waste. Thus, without a proper system like composting put into place, the degradation of our environmental and societal health will continue. With that being said, Durbin and I created an advocacy campaign with goals to help encourage Eckerd College students to compost and increas...
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Location: St. Petersburg, FL, USA
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A Hunt for Life: Communicating life and death and the power of hunting as conservation to a liberal campus

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  Over the past couple months, my team and I on the Current, Eckerd’s school newspaper, have worked to create a magazine to communicate stories revolving around the theme of ‘life.’ In its nature it is a broad and large concept, one up for interpretation to the storyteller. For me, meditation on the concept of life holds a similar weight and breadth as ‘environment’ does. It is complex. It is dynamic. It can only exist if things are in relationship and conversation with others. Thus, when I think of life, I think of the environment, I think about death, I think about a frontier of living things existing for and through one another. A story emerged that presented a complex relationship between human and nature, life and death and how we perceive different ways of living. The piece, which was published in the Current’s first ever issue of the ‘Cat. 5’ magazine, was entitled ‘A Hunt for Life.’  The article manifested in a narrative of a weekend duck hunting trip to the Everglad...
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Environmental Impacts of Traditional Deathcare Practices: Legalize Human Composting in Florida

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The Environmental Impact of our Traditional Deathcare Practices (and the legalization of new alternatives) By Hannah-Grace Perry
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