Happy Ocean

Today's challenge (the final day) is to "be proud of the positive choices you made this month". Reflect back over the days and weeks of daily challenges and the choices you made each day to Refuse, Reuse, Repair, Rethink, Recycle and Reduce . Take time today to Rejoice your efforts, consistent choices made each day make such a difference. We hope this challenge has inspired you to continue on your journey to living a plastic-free life. Thank you for your efforts - together we are making a difference. Sharing a few tools to help you continue your plastic free journey: -I met Megan MacKenzie at the "Green Ideas @ your Library" event on May 4th. I was so impressed with the zero waste transformation she made over the past two years, check out her CBC News article " How 'simple, little changes' helped an Island woman ditch plastic ". -Zero Waste Canada has a:  Breakfreefromplastics  checklist to create a zero waste lifestyle. -Fo...

Today's challenge is to "use cloth towels instead of paper". One cloth paper towel = 7,300 paper towels, and not to mention all the single-use plastic these items are wrapped in (sometimes double wrapped). 13 billion pounds of paper towels are used in the USA alone each year (couldn't find a comparable Canadian Stat). Paper towels aren’t recyclable in the traditional sense. Paper towels are often made from recycled paper pulp – a non-recyclable product. Then, they are often dirty or wet when we are done with them, which degrades them further and makes them non-recyclable. Imagine if we collectively worked together to reduce our use of paper towels. The amount of non-recyclable paper trash that ends up in our landfills, environment and ocean could be reduced by the billions. The Home, Made Happy  unpaper towels and tough scrubbers Swedish Dishcloth from Moonsnail Soapworks If you must use paper towel, check out  How to use one paper towel   by Jo...

🐝🐝🐝SOLD OUT 🐝🐝🐝

Today's challenge is to "count how many plastic-free choices you made today". This could build on the work you did on Day 4 of the challenge "do a home inventory of all single-use plastic usage". Today you can go through your day mindfully and look for all the times you refused plastic, and/or implemented an alternative to plastic. You will be surprised how fast this number will add up over the course of a day. Here is a blog post on  100 Steps to a Plastic-Free Life  which will help you with identifying your plastic-free choices, if they have since become automatic for you.

Today's challenge is to "switch to e-bills instead of paper/plastic mail". For those that still have paper bills and statements coming to your mailbox each month, an eBill (electronic bill) is an electronic version of a paper bill that you can view and pay online. Instead of being sent to your home mailbox, eBills are delivered via the websites of companies who you do business with and/or via your electronic mailbox. You may already do your banking online, but do you still receive electric bills and statements by mail? If so, switch to ebills today and cancel the paper (some bills still have that single-use plastic window for your address as part of the envelope). To take things a step further: It only takes a minute to opt out of receiving the yellow pages book , which for many people goes right into the blue bag recycling.  Yellow Pages Opt-out (get the app instead) As well, get rid of paper junk mail and weekly paper flyers, and use the Flipp and Reebee app...

Today's challenge is to "give a reusable bag to a friend". You can use one of your own or make a t-shirt bag as described in Day 2 of the challenge , or purchase a new or second-hand cloth bag as a gift. You can even do a Random Act of Kindness by giving a reusable bag to a stranger at the grocery store, if they are walking into the store empty handed, or in the check out line with no cloth bags in their cart. When I spoke to Island Waste Management Corporation (IWMC), they mentioned that they will be giving reusable bags to all of the cruise ship passengers, so they will consider using the reusable bag instead of single-use plastic when they are doing their shopping on our beautiful Island.

Today's challenge is to "read about the efforts of a community watershed". The Prince Edward Island Watershed Alliance (PEIWA) is a non-profit cooperative association of watershed management groups on Prince Edward Island. The overall goal of the PEIWA is to improve and protect the environmental quality of Prince Edward Island watersheds, for the benefit of all Island residents. There are 24 non profit watershed groups in Prince Edward Island and over 97% of the island is managed by these watershed groups. Here is additional  information about PEI Watersheds Groups  and the PEI  Watershed Group Map . Stratford Watershed photos

Today's challenge is to attend the "Tool Tune Up" at the Charlottetown Farm Centre. Bring your rusty or dull garden tools for a “tune up” by the folks from the  Tool Library . On-going workshops are held from 10 am–2 pm. While you are there getting your tools sharpened, you can participate in workshops, a seed swap, garden tour and a plant sale. Herb Day at the Farm Centre  The 6th annual Herb Day takes place May 25 from 10 am–2 pm at the Farm Centre, 420 University Ave, Charlottetown. Keen gardeners know Herb Day is the place to get healthy starter plants from local and organic farmers. Bring your garden tools for a " tune up " - Daniel from the Charlottetown Tool Library will be on site to oil and sharpen tools. The Charlottetown Tool Library exists to promote social, environmental and economic sustainability through the sharing of tools and equipment, material resources, time, skills and knowledge. For $50 a year you can get a membership to bo...

Today's challenge is to "use a metal or paper straw (or none at all)". 437 million to 8.3 billion plastic straws are on the entire world's coastlines. "Seabirds can ingest as much as 8 percent of their body weight in plastic, which for humans "is equivalent to the average woman having the weight of two babies in her stomach," says Hardesty of Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. Nearly nine million tonnes of plastic — bottles, packaging and other waste — enter the ocean each year, killing marine life and entering the human food chain. Straws add up to about 2,000 tonnes due their their near weightlessness. Here are 9 alternatives to single-use plastic straws. The no straw is my favourite alternative, however having a metal straw for a smoothie is useful. These straws were from Moonsnail Soapworks These were from The Home, Made Happy at Etsy PEI spring market. Fantastic gift idea.

Today's challenge is to "switch to a shampoo/conditioner bar". There are many benefits to switching to a shampoo bar, not only are many of the plastic shampoo bottles not recyclable, but the shampoo  also contain some ingredients that are not commonly known to the general public. Shampoo bars typically have no packaging or have minimal paper packaging that is easily compostable and recyclable. So this is an easy swap to make to reduce waste in your bathroom. And these bars are usually made with natural ingredients. You can also switch to facial bars as an added bonus. You can get shampoo bars at Moonsnail Soapworks , The Farmer's Wife , The Great Canadian Soap Co , South Shore Soaps ,  Bulkbarn , Winners and Homesense. Let me know in the comments below if you have a local spot where you get shampoo bars. My birthday was a few weeks ago and my amazing friend gifted me with these delicious soaps and shampoo bars from Lush . She knew how important the ...

Today's challenge is to "visit a Farmer's Market - shop local". Not only will shopping local eliminate the transportation footprint, but most times these items are not wrapped in single-use plastic, and as a bonus you are supporting farmers and local merchants. Here are a few local markets in PEI: Kent Street Market - open 7 days a week Riverview Country Market  - open Monday to Saturday Charlottetown Farmers' Market  - open Wednesdays and Saturday Downtown Farmers' Market  - open Sundays - July-September Summerside Farmers Market  - open Saturdays Please let me know in the comments below if there are any local markets I missed and I will add to the list. Founders' Food Hall & Market  - opening summer 2019 Experience mouth-watering Island flavours in the heart of downtown Charlottetown. Founders’ Food Hall & Market is a welcoming centre for all visitors offering some of the best of Prince Edward Island. Here is a list of the ...

Today's challenge is to "pack a litter-free lunch". What  that means is when you have finished your lunch there is nothing to throw away. Here are a few  Waste-Free lunches on pinterest  to get some ideas, and you will also have some snack ideas from day 19 of this challenge. There are a lot of litter free lunch resources targeted to children, but adults can learn from these as well, especially if they pack their lunches for work: http://www.wastefreelunches.org/ Island Waste Management Corporation (IWMC) has a Wasteless Lunch lesson plan Another great resource is the " Waste Free Lunch Challenge " designed to be a resource for classroom educators to raise awareness around the issue of waste reduction. The objective of the challenge is to reduce the amount of waste generated by schools and to engage students, teachers, and parents on the 3R’s principles of Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. For more details on Waste Reduction Week, please visit  ww...

Today's challenge is to "drink coffee at the cafe if you forget your reusable cup". Not only will this action reduce single-use plastic (plastic lid for takeout coffee), it will also provide you a few moments of mindfulness while you sit and drink your coffee. Here are a couple of articles to help you achieve a mindful moment over coffee. How to be mindful with a cup of coffee How to have a mindful coffee I compiled a list of some local coffee shops with a cozy atmosphere: bar1911 Juice Co Receiver Coffee Kettle Black Beanz Espresso Timothy's Cafe Linda's Coffee Shop Samuel's Coffee House Please add any favourites I may have missed in the comments below and I will add them to the list.

Today's challenge is to "choose snacks without plastic wrap". For convenience, a lot of snacks are packaged in single-use plastic (granola bars, fruit roll ups). Even some items that have their own natural wrapper (avocados and bananas) can be seen wrapped in plastic. These two articles provide a lot of great plastic-free snack ideas: 6+ Zero Waste Plastic-Free Snack Ideas Zero waste Challenge: Snacks You can use the  snack bags  and  beeswax wraps  from this plastic free challenge to take your snacks with you on the go.

Today's challenge is to "attend the Repair Café in Kensington at the Murray Christian Centre ". Got something that needs fixing? Don't throw it out, bring it to the Repair Café, a volunteer led initiative supported by the community. The hours are from 10am-2pm, you can drop by anytime and get your items repaired by donation. If you are participating in this challenge from outside PEI, or can't get to Kensington today you can always do your own mini "repair café" at home. Have a look through your home for clothes that may need a button sewn on, broken toys that may just need a dab of glue, a bike that may need some air in the tires or oil on the chain, or any electronics that you could take into a local repair shop to see if they can be fixed. The green concept of the Repair Café is to try to fix items (when possible) to extend the useful life, instead of throwing it out and having that item end up in a landfill, and then going out and purchasing a...

Today's challenge is to "bring your own reusable cutlery set with you". Cutlery is also known as utensils - in this case we are talking about forks, knives, spoons, chopsticks (or anything you use to eat with that would be given out as single-use plastic). It is estimated that close to 40 billion individual plastic utensils/cutlery items are produced each year, and with such low rates of reuse and recycling, most of them end up in our landfills, beaches and oceans. They are likely to remain there for hundreds of thousands of years. Among the items most often found in the sea and in landfills around the world are plastic utensils/cutlery. These astounding figures give businesses an easy opportunity to show their customers they authentically care about the environment by doing away with these unnecessary pollutants and replacing them with environmentally friendly utensils. However it also puts the onus on us to refuse these items, and bring our own reusable cutlery w...

Today's challenge is to "visit " Happy Ocean PEI " blog and read a post". Our Happy Ocean Community group started this blog in April to raise awareness of green and plastic-free initiatives that are happening across the Island, as well as to capture each day of the 31-day plastic free challenge. To date we have 22 posts, keep checking back often for more blog entries posted each day/week. "Just because you can't see it, it doesn't mean that it isn't there." If you have any ideas for posts, please contact us by leaving a comment on the blog, or by sending an email to happyoceanpei@gmail.com 

Looking forward to these Happy Crafts DIY Nights, all items made over the four weeks will be natural, green and plastic-free. It's $36 for the four weeks to cover the cost of materials. Each week you will learn how to make natural toothpaste, soap products, bug repellent and sunscreen. Hope to see you there!

Today's challenge is to "opt for drinks in glass bottles and cans". This isn't to say go out and start drinking from glass bottles and cans if you don't already do so, it is more to make the choice when it is presented to you. I have friends that drink beverages from single-use plastic bottles daily, so switching to cans or glass will help our environment. I found an article by Earth911 that does a full comparison of the beverage options analyzing three factors - how they're made, transport, and where they end up. Beverage Container Showdown: Plastic vs. Glass vs. Aluminum The verdict: If you can find aluminum cans made from 100 percent recycled materials, they should be your top choice when shopping for single-serving beverages. Their low transportation footprint and ease of recyclability make them a winner. However, the extraction of raw bauxite is detrimental to the planet. New aluminum cans are not eco-friendly. Glass should be your pick if rec...