Sneha Padmanabhan, a junior at William Fremd High School in Palatine, IL, has launched a social media campaign for people to find their eco-score based on their food, commute and energy usage patterns to bring awareness on how to be more environmentally friendly. She hopes for the eco-score to be a reflection of one’s eco-friendly lifestyle choices and way of encouraging people to reduce their carbon and chemical footprints.
As Sneha describes in Earth Day article, when asked about ways to be environmentally-friendly, most people immediately respond, “Well, I recycle!” There’s a lot more to living an eco-friendly lifestyle beyond just recycling. In fact, only a very small fraction of what we designate for recycling, actually gets recycled. The rest ends up in landfills. The National Geographic estimates that 91% of plastic is not recycled and ends up in landfills and our oceans.
She shares that there’s much more to pollution than plastic. Household chemicals like cleaners, detergent, dishwasher soap, air-fresheners, and personal hygiene products like soap, shampoo etc., all contain chemicals that are hazardous to the environment. These enter our groundwater, rivers and lakes, and ultimately affect our health.
Sneha hopes to bring awareness on the proper way to dispose and recycle since many are not aware of the proper way to dispose off of electronics, batteries and other e-waste. She explains the intent of her campaign and survey, as a way to help people understand the many dimensions of pollution and waste.
The survey asks some very easy to answer questions and calculates eco-score and rating. Along the way, it gives many tips and suggestions on how to reduce waste and shrink one’s carbon footprint, in an attempt to address many aspects of our relationship with our environment and planet.
https://m.facebook.com/We-Dont-Have-A-Choice-Save-The-Planet-599119130603200/
https://instagram.com/wedonthaveachoice?utm_source=ig_profile_share&igshid=5of7x4fahcj8
Sneha believes in creating awareness on the impact of making bad choices for the environment will bring eco conducive change.
A sample of the eco-score, a measure of environment friendly lifestyle
Sneha is an environment enthusiast deeply concerned about ocean plastics and oil spills in the ocean.
