This week is Earth Week around the world and what better way to celebrate than with a challenge for your friends. Basically you’ll need a bracket, plenty of friends and a willingness to commit to the Earth.
Day One and Two
The first two days of the challenge you’ll match people up against one another in the bracket, then they will compete in shower times. Each night you take a shower you have to time how long you left the water running. Add the two days together and whomever had the least amount of time moves on to the next round.
Day Three
The third day is all about trash. For one day you will collect the trash you create during the day. You’ll recieve points for each piece of waste. You get 5 points per item of trash and 3 points per item of recycling. This is to show you how much waste you create in a single day. The person with the least amount of points wins this round.
Day Four and Five
The last two days are paper product days. You will be counting the amount of paper towels, napkins and toilet paper squares you use. All of this waste will be added up at the end and whomever has the least amount of paper products used wins.
Bonus Round: Meatless Monday. One day (it doesn’t have to be a Monday) count how much meat you eat. The less meat you eat the less points you’ll receive and whomever has the least amount wins. It encourages you to stay away from meat and experiment with your meals.
My spirit organization, the Texas Ladybirds, has been hard at work on a longer version of this game, thought up by our sustainability committee. It is really fun to compete against one another to see who will be the most sustainable at the end — so do this yourself. Whether you do it with your org, your hallmates or just a random group of friends this game shows you how much waste you create over the course of a week. It’s crazy.