Today I am starting the low waste challenge because I want to fix my consumeristic and wasteful habits. I've always wanted to do this, but never held myself accountable until I was given the opportunity to by Professor Gray to recieve honors credit for our Personal Resilience class. Committing myself to the low waste challenge relates to the course because of our world responsibility to be liable for the trash we create and pollute. Therefore, I want to commit to reducing waste so that I can track how much I consume and to reveal information that I would never have discovered without doing this. I'm assuming that I will get stuck with certain items unintentionally, try to cut back on packaging but will fail because the item is cheaper with it, and realize that there are inevitable waste products like toliet paper. I have accepted my failure in eliminating toliet paper because it has been imbedded in my lifestyle as convenient and personally sanitary. I promise to only use toliet paper for bowel reasons and not for cleaning house objects. This brings up the idea of me using tp to blow my nose... I'm unsure of whether my priorities in being clean will prevail over using a cloth, but we will figure it out as it happens.
In terms of the objects that I currently have, I will continue to use/consume those items as normal to not be wasteful but keep track of the items that I had. Today I am committing to not buying or intaking any unsustainable materials, but it will be a while until the items in my fridge will "disappear." Currently, my household composts and recycles are waste - whether that the trash is properly allocated by the entire household.. I'm not too sure.. but I try to do the best I can. I obtain food from the AS Food Bank first before I go grocery shopping at TJs or Albertsons. But now, I will have to avoid the packaged food like noodles and mac n cheese from the food bank :-(
I have an electric toothbrush, menstrual cup, multiple water bottles, reusable utensils/straws, brita filter, and lots of tupperware to help me with my necessities. I will need to obtain toothpaste in another way though. I already try to buy clothes second-hand, but still fall when it comes to new trends.
I'm super excited about finally tracking my waste and I hope that my story will inspire others to be more conscious of what they buy and consume. Maybe together we could solve the issue of improper waste disposal, leaking toxic substances into our water systems and land, and climate change.