This sustainable journal has taught me a number of things. As I sit back and reflect upon everything this semester, I think the most valuable lesson I have learned is actually that of patience and persistence. Changing your lifestyle and becoming more green is not simple. You cannot just flip a switch. It requires constant attention and efforts to maintain. Can I say that I am 100% green now? Heavens no. However, from where I was when I first began this sustainable project to where I am at now is a major step forward and one that I am proud I have endeavored. I'm happy to see many of the green initiatives I undertook have actually paid off. These things such as reducing my heat to 60 degrees Fahrenheit, turning off lights and unplugging appliances when not in use, and riding my bike instead of driving have saved me tremendous amounts of money. I average about $30 a month in savings. This isn't much but overtime that builds up and really makes me appreciate the amount I was wasting beforehand.
I have discovered new things that I love to do and things that were difficult to maintain. One of these was recycling. I started a paper recycling box and a plastic milk jug box. Personally, it was difficult to begin recycling. I was so used to just throwing everything away before. It was so simple and easy to just toss everything. It was also a very hard habit to break and begin the recycling effort. Through these last few months, I have literally forced myself to recycle. The day I started this effort, I dumped all of my trash cans and looked for material that could be recycled. I wanted to recycle everything but after dumping my trash, I learned that nearly 80% of it was paper. Paper was easy enough to separate and recycle so I decided that I would only recycle paper. Then as I got more into it I started to recycle milk jugs too. In the entire process I have become more aware of what I purchase and specifically try to buy products that I can easily recycle. Though, I have found that recycling milk jugs is kind of funny. At least in Laramie, they only recycle the milk jug. The lids they do not accept. Obviously, I know, that there are a lot more things I could recycle but I wanted to start with the things I could manage. Plus, I noticed that paper was the biggest thing I wasted. It really surprised me. Now I can really see how much paper I wasted before when I look into my recycling bin.
Not every effort was hard. I actually enjoyed some sustainability efforts. Becoming sustainable is really about changing bad lifestyles and replacing them with conserving ones. I discovered one that I really enjoyed was cooking instead of going out to eat. My roommate and I both undertook this project and decided we would each have a designated night to cook on. This would save us on food costs and time spent cooking. It also was a great time to spend time with one another through our busy schedules. This has saved a lot of money and was a great sustainable idea. It was by far my most favorite of all of my sustainable efforts and it wasn't hard at all, unless you think cooking is hard. Some nights I was tempted to not want to cook and instead go out to eat but I forced myself to cook and ended with a great sustainable idea.
A few of my efforts I know that I will not be able to maintain going forward from this sustainability project. I could hardly manage to maintain these things while I was doing this sustainability effort. The hardest one was unplugging unused appliances. While this did save my a lot on my electricity bill, it was very difficult to remember to unplug all my unused appliances, especially late at night. However, there are a few appliances that I will continue to do this on like my cell phone charger, toaster, and television. These appliances were easier to remember to unplug. I only use my cell phone charger to charge my phone so I can easily just plug that in and out when I need it. The toaster is along the same lines. The television is easy for me too because I have it now plugged into a surge protector that I can just flip a switch and have it turned off and unplugged. However, I found it not feasible to turn off and unplug my computer every night. Things that were just too time consuming really weren't worth the effort. I'd like to not waste electricity but some things just aren't as easily managed. This is especially evident with all the other little devices that are plugged in such as lamps and my microwave. It was a good project to do but I cannot maintain unplugging everything.
Overall, I got a lot out of this sustainability effort and was glad to be forced to under go it. I challenge anyone out there to just for a month try to maintain a sustainable lifestyle. Your eyes will surely be opened to a number of things you have never realized before.
