So for Ruling Ideas, there is a project in which all Honors students challenge themselves by giving up something, as to become more of a lantern and less of a flashlight. (seeing all different perspectives rather than just one.) One of the girls in the Honors program was in Cedarwood last night stir-frying onions, and I asked why. She said that for her Honors project, she was eating only local foods for two weeks. I was highly impressed by this, especially because she was starting early, and second because she was eating all local foods for two weeks! But not to be behind on anything, especially the class where I am most likely to be held to a high standard because of the type of person I am, I decided to start my challenge, though I couldn't decide what to do. As I was processing it, a friend suggested giving up Facebook, but I had already done that this spring for Lent. Last night as I went to bed, the last thought that I had was to do something to help the environment. Last year my fifth cousin Katie went vegetarian for five days because of the water used in processing meat, and also took shorter showers and made points to not leave the water running or waste water. So what I am doing, in the process of doing, anyway, is going to be to not throw anything away for two weeks. Even though I think the time frame that we are required to do something like this is only five days. So I started this morning. I saved the wrapper from my granola bar and left it on my desk for later. Then when I was cleaning my room later, I decided to empty my trash from previous days, only to get a fresh start with what I was doing. And then I took all the trash that I accumulated and started using it to decorate my room. Note that most of my trash is actually paper. I decided not to recycle anything, because I'm more focusing on the "reduce" and "reuse". Those never seem to get as much fame as their buddy "recycle" anyhow. So I reused my extra papers, for here out referred to as "trash". I made snowflakes, and random collages, and also a rather interesting flower. It is really helping me become aware of the oblivious moments where I use paper way too much. I put one of my towels in the bathroom to dry my hands and my face on so that I don't use a multitude of paper towels. I forced myself not take napkins after I already took one, (which I gave to my friend. *Sharing is Caring.*) Anyway, so I was processing this whole idea in my journal, as it's good to take notes when doing an experiment, though on yourself.
I got off on this lovely tangent. At the beginning, you'll find some material that repeats itself a little from what I have already written, but it's all needed to induce what I came up with.
Here it goes:
Day One:
The hardest part may be that I am eating & there's plastic packaging around said food. I'm going to figure out how to reuse said packaging. So far I was cleaning my room & I took the previous trash down to the trash room. Then from today, I took the trash that I accumulated from today & made various decoration in my room--a collage, some snowflakes (note that I used all the little snippets as well! I did not throw them away!). Some of them look rather nice, besides the wording from the church bulletin.
I am not a pack rat, but not throwing anything away will be difficult, I can't keep the gloves I wore in Chemistry Lab. Or can I ?
There's been several mess-ups so far--I took a napkin at lunch, then justified it by giving it to Bekah to use. Napkins can be shared. I have to start using my own towel to dry my hands in the bathroom. I have to figure out what I'm going to do with my chewed gum after I've already found something creative to do with my gum wrapper. I don't want to want a snack because then I will have to find something to do with each individual piece of plastic. Making tea would be interesting. What can one do with a tea bad after it has been used?
I'm also deciding to wear all the clothes I have that were previously in my laundry basket twice so that they are actually worn before they are washed.
Reusing things is so important in this society, where it is unAmerican to reuse paper towels. What is up with that? In the book, "On that day everybody ate," (also read for Honors), it describes a woman who used a fourth of a cotton ball to remove the fingernail polish for all of her fingers. I tried that the other day. I succeeded with two quarters of a cotton ball for my ten fingers. Is it really relevant to use as much as we use just to superficially look nice or smell nice or to be clean or to be creative? If we just look at our resources now, the world around us, the trash in every can, there are so many options to have art and expression in the things people throw away.
Why do things need to be individually wrapped? Because people don't want their fun size bars to melt together because they accidently left them in the car for too long. I think that simple changes could be made & less plastic used. So other things could be made in the time & with the money it took to individually wrap chocolates. Or granola bars. Save plastic, save money, save time, save the world.
Another thin I am aware of within this first day. I have the option to buy something, but as I have that option, then comes something that I have to throw away. Extra paper, plastic bottles, metal twist ties to secure some item. Not only am I buying an electronic toothbrush (for example), but I'm buying the stiff shrink-wrapped plastic exoskeleton that comes with it. I'm buying the flashy, name-branded shiny paper cardboard that comes on the inside. That paper can be recycled, but can the plastic encasing it? And what are the odds that a person will remove the paper from the plastic with the goal of recycling both items?
Are there alternatives? Maybe. Are they mainstream and way up there with the big shots form Walmart? No way. One would have to hear about it in the first place to actually know of a packaging that would be recyclable. Are there reliable alternatives to the things in life use,d with the certainty that they will never decompose, like rubber tires? And what can be done with styrofoam? People make track and field tracks out of old tires, but they still aren't decomposing. There's little pieces of styrofoam in potting soil(at least, that's what I think it is) but they are just being ground into little pieces, and the truth of the matter is that trying to break down the chemical compound involving either styrofoam or tires would make more toxic fumes, doing more harm than good. But don't they make toxic fumes when created? So why on earth are we creating them? Especially when we cannot get rid of them or reuse them in the same way without the same effect of consequences. Why aren't companies pursuing "green" tires and styrofoam? Why is packaging so important?
Is mass production & reliance on machines to deliver breakable items going to cause the world ot overheat because there is so much nonperishable cushioning material? People should care more. Then we can be more careful as we deliver. If we actually car about what is being carried, it is less likely to be broken. (People don't drop puppies or babies. Not that we want to think of technology or lamps in those terms. ) Thus, it is less likely to need massive amounts of packaging. because of this, there is less of a need for styrofoam to pad something that won't be dropped, thus not broken. (If something is broken, yes, I understand people won't buy it. And that messes with businesses and profits and peoples' salaries etc... Yeah, yeah I get the poing. So don't make items of demand breakable. Find ways to make things pretty much indestructable. LEt the design of the item overcompensate for itself so it doesn't need packaging)
Within the advance of technology, it is more important that the item is stable and made for humans, considering that humans use it, and it should be able to be dropped and still function. If a user can drop an item while in ownership of it and the item still work, then why does it need packaging to "protect" it? It's already protected! (yes, I realize that for some people, it's all about the image, and if it's scratched, they won't like it. Stop crying. Is it still functioning like you want it to? Stop whining!) If it can be dropped when someone uses it, then it can be dropped while being shipped. There's no need for styrofoam! No one EVER sees average Joe's Mom walking around, carrying her purse, cell phone, and car around in styrofoam casing! (No one ever sees average Joe's mom carrying her car in general... but you get the point!)
To reduce the use of tires, one has to reduce the use of cars. With using tires, people can save a lot more money by switching to riding a bicycle. They still have tires, but much smaller tires. Bikes also use a lot less to no fossil fuels (depends on if one is riding a motorcycle.) It takes a lot more time to bike places. And it's more difficult to carry wide screen TVs home from the store. So don't buy one. It's a waste of electricity anyway. Besides, if one is making a lifestyle of vastly biking, there won't be much time for sitting around and watching TV anyway. Too busy running errands.
We don't need it all, really.
Live simply. By the way, after my experiment, perhaps I will "get rid" of things that I do not use or need, by way of a thrift store, using a resource with the ability to "reuse" things I no longer use. As for "reducing", I'm sure that being aware will bring forth an eager mindset to use less and make more of what I already have. For what I already have is more than many would ever dream of. So I'll give it away.
That's all I have to say about that.
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