A Beginner’s Guide to Starting Sustainable Habits
Like many freshly enrolled college first-years, I was eager to get behind causes that spoke to me. One such cause was sustainability. I was exposed to the idea of being earth-conscious in my senior year of high school thanks to my wildly inspiring AP Environmental Science teacher, and I sought to continue this enthusiasm for the environment in college.
Although I have hit many roadblocks when it comes to swapping unsustainable habits for more earth-friendly ones, the trial and error of these endeavors has helped me to create a systematic way of assessing my environmental footprint. In this post, I will be sharing the ways that I approached starting a sustainable lifestyle.
To begin, I wanted to understand the type of consumer waste I was producing and how much of it there was. My friend Alaina (another author on this site) and I decided that we could find the answers to these two questions we had by collecting our non-compostable and non-recyclable waste for an entire week in one bag.
While it was challenging to remember to not throw away the majority of my trash in the main bin, we were able to get a great glimpse of what our typical trash profile was. Not surprisingly, my Keurig K-cups were the main offender when it came to the majority of my plastic waste. This was followed by Trader Joe’s frozen meal containers and plastic baggies. This was just my starting point to assessing aspects of my life where I could reduce some of my non-recyclable trash.
The following list is a guide to help you start your own sustainably-conscious journey:
Follow through on a week-long trash collection journey just like the one Alaina and I did so that you can notice patterns in your non-recyclable trash and come up with sustainable long-term solutions.
For me, this activity pushed me to start using reusable K-cups, which allowed me to fill my own coffee grounds into a single cup instead of using multiple single-use K-cups.
Critically analyze your routines in life in order to pick apart what you use and how often you are replacing certain items.
Hygiene routines:
Do your bath care items come in plastic packaging?
Do you use a disposable razor?
What is your toothbrush made of?
What items could you consolidate so there are overall less products to re-purchase in plastic bottles?
Makeup routines:
How much of your makeup is covered in plastic?
Are the brands you use cruelty-free?
Are you buying more non-recyclable products than you are actually using?
Clothing purchases:
How frequently are you purchasing new clothes in a given month?
Are you mainly buying from “fast fashion” sites?
Are you utilizing all the clothes in your wardrobe before buying new items?
Can any of the items you need be bought second-hand?
Grocery hauls:
Do you use the plastic produce bags from the grocery store?
What percentage of the plastic products you buy could be swapped for non-plastic covered items?
Commutes:
How often are you driving alone to group-oriented destinations?
Is public transport available to use?
Would a friend, colleague, or family member be willing to carpool if you are meeting them there anyways?
Come up with realistic sustainable swaps for the items you identified. Once a non-reusable item bites the dust, replace it with a reusable one if possible. The worst thing to do would be to toss items out prematurely for the sole reason that they are innately unsustainable. Start small and slow.
DON’T OVERWHELM YOURSELF! It is easy to feel like you are failing the planet once you dive into the nitty gritty of sustainable living. It takes numerous habit changes in order to progress towards earth-friendly purchase and habits.
Initiating and maintaining sustainable habits in college will allow you to be an informed and conscious consumer throughout your life. Remind yourself that you are not striving for perfection, nor do you have to change every earth-unfriendly habit. Rather, you are trying to find a balance as well as learn from your past habits.
