My 48 Hour Sustainability Journal- Maria Lieggi



During the process of Journalism for 48 hours, I truly noticed how unsustainable my everyday life could be unless I take notice. On Tuesday, November 13th, 2018 I started my journalism process. Understanding that water consumption has a huge impact on the sustainability imprint individuals have on the environment, I always try to have the water shut off while I’m washing my face and brushing my teeth. I don’t see the reasons to have the water running if you don’t need it at that exact moment. I have also taken efforts to take shorter showers. These two efforts I have expressed in my journal have lessen the impact of my water usage. I learned about how strongly water consumption can affect your sustainable imprint from Dr. Chandu during his conversation with us back in early October. The second main impact I noticed was my food consumption containers. When I ordered food at home, work, school, I noticed all of them came in some form of plastic container. This being the lid, the whole container, or the utensils included with the meal. This makes me so upset to think that this is way that majority of food companies package their items. I think they need to learn the true negative impacts on the environment that all of their plastic containers are evaluating to.  The plastic consumption and usage in New York City alone has grown tremendously in the past few generations. People are unaware of these harmful impacts, due to lack of education and information. 
During our trip to WaterKeeper Alliance, Marc Yaggi I along with my sustainability classmates, learned about the dangers of plastic consumption, disposable, and decomposition. We learned that in 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than marine life. How is that okay? Answer: It’s not. We need to make the change. This change will only happen when people become aware of these facts. Learning the overwhelming alarming facts, made me more aware of how to dispose of these items. After I finished eating I made sure to recycle the water bottle, plastic container and utensils that were included within my meal. I am one person, majority of people do not do the extra step in the disposal process, therefore, that’s why our plastic ends up in oceans and landfills. There should be more knowledgeable information that can be accessed and addressed easier and more frequently to people all over the world. I’ve noticed at my own job, we have complementary Poland Spring water bottles for customers and associates in the Showroom. I brought up to my boss that we should invest in a recycling program due to how many water bottles are being used daily within this one section of the company. He thought it was a great idea and we are now working on producing and discussing a solution to this problem. 
Within these 48 hours, I did not use to many clothing items that needed to be washed. I’m not the type of person that will only was a hand full of items for a load. I will wait until I have enough “dirty” clothes that will contain and fill a full load in the wash machine. This system is also the same for the dishwasher. I think by running a full load of clothing or dishes with barely any items in the appliance is doing a negative service along with wasting of water and cleaning supplies. I have been doing this system for several years and I think it’s one of the best ways I have successfully and positively impacted the environment. I think the best way to save the planet, would be to reduce the use of plastic materials. Companies that engage in the production of reusing these plastic materials to produce their clothing and/or accessories, is fabulous. The more companies that take on this task to reduce the amount of plastic within landfills and oceans will be more successful once the message has grown and consumers are more knowledgeable. I believe we all must make a strong effort to change the way we do little, very harmful and impactful, things. By doing this, together we can make a change.


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