Personal Sustainability Actions: Then vs. Now

If you pay attention in the sustainability, then you know a lot has changed in the past few weeks with the onset of Covid-19. And the restrictions make sense, and there for our safety and health. Of course with that the actions I take personally have also changed since moving back home.

Also, happy April and happy Earth Month! Be prepared for some more sustainability content this month 🙂

Then:

So, in Kent I obviously ran my life a little differently than I do here. I was living with 2-3 roommates (depending on the month). I was in charge of my groceries and what I ate. I was responsible for myself and my actions.

Let\’s start with food: Because I was responsible for myself and my food, there was a lot less food waste because I would plan my meals for the week in a way that would allow for very little waste. Additionally, at the beginning of this year, I started to try and cut back on my meat consumption. This was fairly easy to do since I don\’t really like cooking meat, and I\’m open to trying a lot of new things. But contrary to these actions, I wasn\’t composting most of my food waste. Occasionally I would freeze my compostable waste if I knew I was going home soon, but that wasn\’t usually the case.

As far as water usage is concerned, we didn\’t have a dishwasher, so everything had to be done by hand, which wastes a lot of water. But, because our water heated up pretty quickly and we had good water pressure, I could take a shower and have the water running for about 4 minutes.

Of course there are some things that aren\’t changing. I\’m still able to buy all my clothing secondhand. I\’m still using my Diva cup for the most part. I\’m still using my wooden toothbrush. I\’m still using my reusable cotton pads. My mom and I both use are reusable bags at the grocery store.

Now:

All things considered, I\’m now eating with my family for most meals, which is a great thing, and my mom does most of the grocery shopping. And none of these are bad, it\’s just not the way I\’m doing things.

Again with food: We have a composter here so I can compost almost anything! I love it! But, because my mom and brother are big meat eaters, I am also now consuming a lot more meat than I had been. Additionally, we\’ve been ordering in a lot more in an effort to support local businesses.

Regarding water, we do have a dishwasher, which means that there is some water conservation there, but also my showers are twice as long due to the time it takes the water to heat up and the water pressure.

While looking back at this, I\’ve notice that there\’s been a lot of trade-offs. But one thing\’s for sure: I\’m still in my loungewear so often 🙂

Much Love, 

Jac