I like to think I'm fairly conscious of my impact on the environment. And, I like to think I'm fairly good at minimizing those impacts. A few easy tricks I use to minimize my impacts include showering every other day, not washing my hair every day and often times, not blow-drying or straightening my hair. (Caveat: If I'm working out a lot, that frequency must increase...). I also switched to cloth napkins over paper ones and have drastically reduced the rolls of paper towels I use annually. Since moving to Bloomington, I use public transit or ride my bike more frequently. In general, I have reduced my purchases of unnecessary items. I don't really buy trinkets anymore just for the sake of buying and displaying them, and I borrow books and rent movies rather than purchasing them. One of the upsides of this decision is I no longer wander aimlessly around Target snatching up everything except what I actually need.
A couple of years ago a few different things spurred me to take the actions listed above and do more than simply recycle. One night on Netflix, I stumbled across the documentary, No Impact Man. Shortly after that, I devoured a blog and then a book written by Bea Johnson, both titled Zero Waste Home. These two sources single-handedly changed my perspective on our materialistic life styles. I've definitely heard some critical comments regarding both ventures, especially the fact that they both at one point lived a fairly typical American lifestyle -that is consuming at levels way beyond their needs. Additionally, I suppose they both take the idea of living green to an extreme that many of us might resist. Regardless, if you haven't heard of these two before, I would very much recommend checking them out!
So, I have tried to implement some of the ideas they presented. But, there is always room for improvement. As the name of this blog suggests...here is my dirty little secret. I am not really as green or environmentally conscious as I like to think. One peek at my grocery purchases will easily confirm this problem.
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| my dirty little secret |
Some of you may be thinking, what's the problem, looks pretty typical. Others might immediately see what I'm thinking.
Plastic. So many of our food items are in plastic. Or bags (like the chips) which can't be recycled.
And so begins my personal project. I am going to decrease the amount of unnecessary plastic in my life. This might spill over into decreasing unnecessary packaging which cannot be recycled (ie the chip bag).
Why do I want to decrease my plastic use? Well, Professor Brown eluded to my motivations in class last Thursday. Since this blog is getting fairly lengthy, I will simply list a few links with information about the plastic problem in our world. Of note, I am certainly not the first person to give this a whirl. As such, a plastic free blog is also listed below. Most likely I will use this one in particular as a resource in the coming weeks.
Midway Film (WARNING: This trailer is very graphic & upsetting. But if you only click on one link in this blog, this should be the one.)
Brief Midway Island Info
5 Gyres
My Plastic Free Life Blog
In my next blog, I'll examine the groceries pictured above and some other areas of my life (we all know plastic isn't just a grocery problem) and go into details about how this will work. Also, I imagine my future personal project blogs will be shorter. However, today I wanted to give you an idea of how sustainability became important to me and introduce you to my project.
It should have a name, right? How about Project Plastic Overhaul.
Until next time,
Katie
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