48-Hour Journal Entry

Image Credit: laincubator.org

11/11/17-11/12/17 Journal of Activities

· I cooked meals for the day in the morning. Even though the chicken I purchased was free-range and organic it was wrapped in plastic. The rice, apples, and spinach also came in plastic bags. I used glass containers to pack all my meals, and always carry cutlery from home to avoid using plastic ones.

·    When I finished my workout at the gym, I put my used clothes in a small plastic bag. I bought a smoothie, and the cup and straw were plastic.

·   I purchased tea and it came in a disposable cup.

·   At work, I drank 7 water bottles. They were all plastic, but I did put them in the recycling bin.

·    Everything I wore for these 48 hours was 100% cotton; except my gym clothing.

· I purchased some fresh flowers and they were double-wrapped in plastic and paper.

· I went to yoga twice this weekend in a car (6 miles) and got home in a car (6 more miles). A total of 24 miles.

· I charged my phones and laptop daily.

· I showered 4 times (10-minute showers) and washed my hair twice. The shampoo and conditioner came in plastic bottles.

· I wrote in my journal (made from un-recycled paper).

Even though there aren’t many variables on my day-to-day, journaling for the past 48-hours made me aware of my daily consumption of plastic (despite my efforts to stay away from doing so, it is quite high). From a consumer’s perspective, I think that I can put forth more effort in reducing the use of plastic by not using any plastic bags for my fruits and vegetables, and instead of purchasing pre-packaged chicken, I could go to the butcher with glass containers. I could also avoid unnecessary water-waste by reducing the time I spend in the shower from 10 to 5 minutes.

In terms of influencing the supply-chain. I could initiate a petition and collect signatures to reduce the amount of plastic involved as part of the shopping experience. I would promote this at Parent Teacher Association meetings in the 6 local schools and daycares in the neighborhood, and go to my local university (Columbia University). Furthermore, I could speak to building managers for them to allow me to post the petition in the lobby of their building. These efforts would be followed by a written proposal to Wholefoods for a collaboration to implement these changes, and then a meeting with New York City’s mayor to present facts about how we as a city could start to transition into becoming a more sustainable city by changing some aspects of how we shop for food.

A second initiative to reduce the use of fuel and gas emission would be to start riding a City Bike to and from work (as well as to my yoga class). I believe that the volume of traffic in the city is a great contributor to the pollution of our air. I would also contact corporations with more than 5 employees to discuss starting a program where they compensate people for enrolling on yearly City Bike memberships, and using these as a means of transportation to get to work. Lastly, I would work with car insurance companies to offer a 35% discount to customers that travel under a specific amount of miles a year in their car.

I believe that the changes mentioned above in my day-to-day would be a starting point to make a change, but the key component of making an impact at a larger scale is for me to become a sustainability advocate within my own community.