Hello everyone, and welcome to my last post for this project!
In my action my two partners and I collected bottles, recycling them at Return-It Depo and then took that money and donated it to the Wildlife Rescue Association of BC. I recycled my own bottles, one of my partners recycled their bottles and the other has recycled some bottles that we picked up from a local park. All together we made 61 dollars which went to providing bird rescue gear.
After reflecting on our action project, I realized that this experience had both challenges and valuable lessons:
We faced a couple of challenges most of them brought on by our lack of organization and incompatible schedules. Our initial plan was to do a school bottle drive, the problem with this was that all three of us only have block 3 off, so it wouldn’t have been very efficient. Instead, we overcame this issue by simply accumulating and recycling our own bottles. Another big challenge that we faced was the snow here in BC. We put off the park clean-up for too long and then the snow came which made it hard to find trash and bottles. We went anyhow and luckily still found enough bottles that my friend could recycle.
Our action has definitely influenced my thinking and future decisions.
After this project I realized how even small actions can still have a substantial impact. It helped me understand that even though the best way to counteract climate change would be through large-scale actions made by corporations or people in power; everyday choices we make do have an impact. Before, I thought that I, personally can’t make a difference. I can’t stop pollution. I can’t stop deforestation. I can’t stop climate change. My effect is tiny, how could I help? However, after seeing that our efforts direct benefitted wildlife rescue it made me more conscious of my environmental footprint and the importance of personal and community involvement. It showed me that I can help, and this will affect my future involvement.
Our action impacted on our local environment by reducing garbage in the park we cleaned and also by supporting the Wildlife Rescue Association of BC to protect and rehabilitate birds.
