☘️Trash Panda
How one man's trash becomes another man's frisbee
Taking a Stance on Plastic
Since the beginning of the pandemic, I have been following the progress of Jesse from Trash Panda Disc Golf. I am a casual disc golfer, I enjoy that it gets me out of the house and into nature. There are quite a few courses around me in Michigan that I can choose from so it is a fun way to exercise. Jesse started a company in the Denver area that is focused on developing a fully recycled and fully recyclable disc golf disc. He has created a YouTube channel linked here that documents his progress starting from absolute scratch in his garage.
I am extremely impressed with Jesse and his perseverance to keep trying and learning from every step of his process. He embodies the definition of Grit. Professor Angela Duckworth, PhD. has conducted research on the subject of Grit and wrote a book on the subject. I highly recommend it. Grit is not just about being tough, it is about staying tough and not giving up. And if you watch Jesse’s latest video linked here, you can see firsthand how much he has endured over the past few years to launch just one fully recyclable disc made from recycled plastic.
The Connection to Architecture
In architecture, sustainability has been a hot topic for the past twenty years, and rightly so, the buildings we live and work in consume around 40% of the U.S. total produced energy on an annual basis. As a country, we have made strides toward reducing our energy consumption, but we have not been able to reduce our demand for energy resources. In the past few years, we have started to talk about Carbon Footprint and Embodied Carbon in buildings. This is a very complicated subject, but one that highlights the intensity of energy that goes into not just building operating costs, but every part of the material extraction and fabrication process. That’s a big subject that we can continue to dig into in the future.
So needless to say sustainability is a big topic that requires action, and in my opinion, no action is too small! Every effort toward reducing our human impact on the earth the better. This is why I am a super fan of Jesse and Trash Panda Disc Golf. I will continue to watch his progress through his YouTube channel. I forgot to mention that he is launching the first run of his new PDGA-approved disc golf disc.
I am writing this post after watching Jesse’s latest video because I was extremely moved by his sincerity and I could see how much he cares about this subject. I know it is an uphill battle to steer away from single-use plastic, but I appreciate his effort and am excited to see the impact on the Disc Golf Community and the world.
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