Introduction

SF Teaching Zoo Invites You to Take the Plastic Free EcoChallenge

SF Teaching Zoo Invites You to Take the Plastic Free EcoChallenge

May 30, 2019 – The Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo wants your department to create a team, or join the SF Teaching Zoo Zero Wasters team in this year’s Plastic Free EcoChallenge. Inspired by the Australian-founded initiative, Plastic Free EcoChallenge is a 31-day international challenge to raise awareness about the problems with plastic; to provide opportunities to learn about reducing and refusing plastics where possible; and to encourage individuals to create small changes that have a huge impact. Throughout July, members within the community will be utilizing the EcoChallenge platform, which offers participants the opportunity to choose actions to reduce their single-use plastic.

If you join the SF Teaching Zoo team, the zoo will act as your team captain, rooting you on and offering helpful resources. Click the EcoChallenge link to begin, There you will find instructions on how to create a team, or join the existing Zoo team. Each person on your team will register themselves under your team name. All participants will be asked to join a zoo or aquarium organization. In this case, the Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo, which will be listed as an option on a drop-down menu. Each person will look through the challenge categories to determine actions they will pledge to take during the month of July. Each challenge category has a variety of actions, from watching videos, writing letters, changing daily behaviors or simply pledging to pick up trash. Your team will be able to see your collective impact throughout the month and track other teams to encourage a little healthy competition. You can even challenge another department! During July, you will record the actions you completed each day and earn points for your team.

The zoo is also working with partners in the community to offer workshops and resources to help you meet your goals. Zero Waste Gainesville will be hosting a workshop at the zoo Thursday, June 20, providing tips to reduce waste and avoid single-use plastics. Space is limited, so register today to assure you get a spot.

If you have any questions, please reach out to Jade Salamone, Haley Wilson or Christina Arnold. If you create a public team, please let Jade, Haley and Christina know by Friday, June 7, so we can create a list of all the teams community members can join. We hope you can participate and help our collective effort to reduce plastic.