SDG 3: Good health and wellbeing

The fast-paced world we live in today can easily tempt us with convenient unhealthy food options for busy people on the go. Appealing advertising and cheap prices often persuade people, especially students, into thinking that they are not as unhealthy as they seem. I pledge to reduce my purchasing of processed foods and focus on healthy fruits and vegetables as well as reducing my meat consumption. This positive change in diet will not only benefit my health and wellbeing but my overall impact on the environment. I will try to purchase from local stores and markets as much as possible to support their economic growth. I will aim to educate myself on healthy food options and ways to communicate what I have learnt to others.

The world today involves excess consumption and when you want something you get it immediately and end up wanting more. The population is growing and manufacturing is expanding to match the increased demand, impacting our environment. The world is running on borrowed time unless we decide to make a change today. Whether people believe it or not, Global Warming is happening. We can no longer live like this. An increase in consumption and manufacturing has reflected in the increase of Green House Emissions and the rapid advance of Global Warming. My pledge is to reduce the amount of meats I consume, especially red meats. The food industry is responsible for a quarter of the greenhouse gas emissions and of these, red meats produce the most such as beef, lamb and mutton and pork. I will reduce the consumption of packaged food which contribute to the waste in our ecosystems. If I do have packaged food then the least I can do is make sure it is recyclable and sustainable.

There is no doubt that recycling is a critical step to achieve a sustainable circular economy. However, we tend to focus only on this practice, ignoring the importance of reducing our consumption levels. It is for this reason that I commit myself to reduce the number of unsustainable products I use on a regular basis by replacing them with non-disposable items. This includes stopping using disposable cutlery, plastic bottles, plastic bags, plastic containers, etc.

I pledge to reduce my household (of 7 people strong) consumption of unsustainable products and to properly dispose of household waste. I plan to do this through: (1) Reducing purchases of products with plastic packaging (I have been bulk buying dry food using reusable storage containers, buying fresh produce with reusable bags and using keep cups and drink bottles to eliminate single-use plastic waste) (2) Minimising meat and diary consumption - eating plant based (less plastic packaging wasted on a higher vegetable diet and healthier) (3) Buying second hand clothes to reduce fast fashion consumption (4) Reusing and repurposing resources that would otherwise be discard (I have learnt to sow to fix or repurpose old clothes and have been reusing old milk cartoons and egg cartoons for planting vegetables) (5) Compost old scraps, recycle and utilise RedCycle when necessary to reduce landfill waste (6) Grow my own produce (especially produce that is difficult to buy with plastic free packing) Through implementing these steps my family has already seen the impact it has made on our weekly landfill waste! We are excited to continue to reduce our household rubbish and live a more sustainable lifestyle! I hope to reduce our landfill rubbish by half by the end of this year. This image is of my most recent bulk foods shopping haul where I filled my repurposed containers with olive oil, shampoo, conditioner, oats, rice, peanut butter, flour and, cocoa and the blue bottle is homemade almond milk!

I will only buy second-hand items (no more fast-fashion), and at the supermarket or food market, I will purchase items without plastic and/or with the least amount of it. I will reduce the number of cotton balls that I use (currently for make-up and nail polish removal). I love, and I always buy creams, so for now on, I will not buy anything new in that department until I need it. I love exercising but struggle with my meditation practice, so I will incorporate at least 20 min (two 10 min sessions, because helloooo) of meditation into my daily schedule. I will also reduce the amount of water I waste every time I do the dishes!!

I am trying to minimize my intake of processed foods. It is always best to eat fresh, not only for health reasons but also for environmental factors. Often when thinking of environmental impact we think of our direct environmental footprints and not the indirect ones. As a student who is living on her own, it is very easy to fall in the habit of buying the readily available processed foods to save time and effort. Instead of buying these processed food, I am trying to buy fresh and raw food items and not buy more than what I intend to utilize.

encourage people to have good habits to avoid illness try my best to fight for women's right use my major to create clean mechaine to produce electric

I will use up all the food in my fridge and pantry before buying more, instead of compulsively ordering uber eats or getting more groceries unnecessarily. This will lead to a reduction in my carbon footprint and overall energy consumption. To aid this, I will do a weekly shop at the markets on Sundays, where I can stock up for the week via a local and sustainable means.

To encourage cross-cultural exchange, I will organise weekly 'food sharing' / cooking lessons with other students to celebrate our diverse cultural heritage and backgrounds

Hello everyone. This is my very first post on #takeonestep platform and I’m on my way to go back to my hometown. As I travel around Japan, I would like to have Zero Waste Travel Challenge by using my reusable products. The situation of plastic wastes in Australia and Japan is quite different. The regulation to charge using plastic bags at grocery stores or convenience stores had postponed by government while lightweight plastic bags in supermarkets is banned in Victoria from 1st of November, 2019. I hope this action and step that I take can build awareness of using reusable products among my family, friends and so on. I will surely enjoy my holiday in Japan in sustainable way.