#JustStaySustainable Challenge Follow Up
"I'm all for saving the environment or whatever, but I hate how they push it on us like it's our fault. It's China and India and places like that."
I'm generally on the more reserved side, but when I heard this come from the mouth of a friend of a friend of a friend at a bar one night I didn't keep quiet. My response?
"No it is our fault. You do know that we send our trash over to those countries right?"
Yes, we ship out our trash. It is our fault. We are a part of the problem.
After this interaction and looking at my own consumer habits I found myself realizing that I have gotten a bit lazy on the eco conscious front. It was a good reminder to myself to practice what I preach, to protect what I love and to refocus on being an advocate and example for what I believe in.
I am not perfect. No one is. I fly a ton for work. My car is not crazy fuel efficient. Looking at my vanity I see plenty of of plastic packages filled with chemicals I probably shouldn't be putting into my body. With all that being said, it's so important to realize that perfection isn't the goal. A conscious effort to make changes for the better is the goal. There are images all over social media recently saying "we don't need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly, we need millions of people doing it imperfectly." I whole heartedly agree with this. We all need to work to make changes to fix the problems that we are all guilty of being the cause of. There will be mistakes. There will be challenges. There will be a learning curve. What matters is that you are making the effort.
I decided to challenge myself to really looking at the amount of waste I produce.
So, for one week I collected the trash I created to show me just how much I, as one individual, am creating.
Before we go over my results and thoughts, a few disclaimers:
-I live at home and do not shop for groceries. While my mom brings her reusable totes and her new reusable produce bags, I am not making the buying decisions. That being said, if something I consume was finished during the challenge I added it to my haul.
-While not collected, there are things in my daily life that I already have that I am using. Things like shampoo bottles, razor blades, containers of protein powder and packages of chia seeds. While they may not be finished and added to my haul they were most certainly used and will become waste.
-In doing this challenge I was hyper aware of what I was consuming and using therefore it doesn't fully depict the amount of waste I produce on a regular basis when not being exceptionally conscious of what I am consuming. I do believe that this was a good exercise in being aware of your consumption, something to continue after this week.
So here is my haul from 1 week of being conscious of what I consume. A big box, some envelopes from bills and such in the mail, a jar of sun flower butter ready to be cleaned and recycled, and lots of other miscellaneous food packaging. Not too bad… but I’m here to be real with you all. There’s a handful of things from throughout the week that due to convenience, ill preparation, or necessity need to be accounted for. The things not pictured are:
The plastic and packaging that comes with getting shots at the doctor.
The foils from getting my hair done.
A K-cup from my coffee at the hair salon.
2 tea bags from Starbucks. (On the plus side, I had my own cup.)
Paper towels from cleaning up after some sick littles at the dance studio.
The wipe I used to wipe down my bike after my cycle class.
2 beer bottles, a plastic straw and paper napkins from going out to dinner on Saturday night.
My Qdoba packaging from dinner on Sunday.
See, there’s a fair amount that I ran into that didn’t make it into the end of challenge photo, but it definitely helped me to see the value in preparation. This week also made me realize that we live in a world where it is incredibly easy and convenient to consume, but a little more tricky and takes extra effort to conserve.
So what do I consider my biggest fails throughout the week? There’s 3:
1. Giant box, little water bottle.
I ordered a new water bottle for traveling, but it came in an absurdly large box for the size of the bottle. It was a solid reminder why it’s beneficial to shop in store and locally when available. The bright side I suppose is that REI packaged the bottle using all paper wrapping so at least it was all recyclable.
2. My final meal of the challenge being fully disposable.
I really didn’t end the challenge on the highest of notes. My dinner Sunday was Qdoba so the bowl and bag of chips went right in the trash.
3. My “kind of zero waste, but not really,” on the go breakfast.
I’ve been loving smoothies for an on the go breakfast. My travel cup and reusable straw seems like a success right? Kind of. In the moment it’s zero waste, but almost all the ingredients going into the smoothie are packaged. So, each day there isn’t waste, but it is there and it does add up.
Now onto my biggest take aways:
Eating healthy and consciously consuming go hand in hand.
It’s so easy to eat on the healthier side when you are trying to create less waste. Why? Whole foods like fruits and veggies come free of containers!
Prepare Prepare Prepare.
Preparation is key. Preparing you lunch the night before work or meal prepping something to have on hand for when you are feeling lazy is key to getting through the day with less waste. Yes, there will probably be some waste involved in the prep like the box from the rice or the package from your vegetarian meat-less ground beef, but I can almost guarantee that it is less than if you were to get take out for those meals (You’ll save a few bucks too, which is always a bonus!) On top of meal prepping, keeping some reusable utensils in your bag and a reusable tote in your car can help cut back at least a little waste in a pinch when you are out and about.
Out of sight out of mind.
While my waste from the week really wasn’t even close to fitting in my mason jar it still served as an important reminder. Having a physical thing sitting on my shelf helped me keep the challenge at the front of my head. It’s so easy to forget things we don’t see, so watching my waste accumulate was one of the main reasons I was able to keep conscious of my consumption throughout the challenge.
We all have room to be better.
I can share tips and tricks for using less plastic. I can watch what I consume. I can speak up and share the emotions and experiences that compel me to be an advocate of this planet. I can only do these things though, if I acknowledge that I too can be better. I too have room for improvement. I still at times choose convenience. I still have times where I’m not sure what can and can’t actually be recycled. It’s wrong to act like I’m someone who has it all figured out. Being able to acknowledge our own faults is a key to growing.
The challenge may be over, but I plan to use the momentum from the week to help keep me aware on a daily basis. I’m not going to lie, consuming less will only get trickier. An increasingly busy schedule and traveling for work means catered meals and eating on the go. While waste cannot be avoided, keeping this challenge in mind will be good to remind myself to do reduce where I can. Reuse where I can. Be accountable for MY impact. I mentioned before “out of sight, out of mind” and I’m bringing it up again- it’s likely this momentum will trail off. It’s likely that we all will find ourselves in seasons where convenience is key, but I like knowing that now I have a little tool, this challenge, to help bring me back to my why and help me refocus on helping protect this planet that we all are so fortunate to call home.
Are you ready to take the #JustStaySustainable Challenge? Read the original post here and be sure to share your journey on social media!