For two days I tracked my day to day routine to track my footprint on the environment.
First, I wake up and brush my teeth with my plastic toothbrush (dropped my wooden toothbrush and had to resort back to plastic for now). Next, I apply my short makeup process consisting of mascara, blush, brow gel, and concealer. Each of these products in plastic packaging. During my mascara process I usually get some excess around my eyes and so I use a cotton swab to clean around my eyes; this, I throw out about every morning or every other morning depending on if I use both ends. After getting dressed I make coffee and breakfast at home to eliminate outside purchasing and plastic accumulation. Next, I pack my glass water bottle and zip block bag of snacks and walk to the bus stop and take the bus to Port Authority. Once I am in the city, I am meeting at The Bar Association for my first class and choose to walk because it is a close enough distance. After this class, I walk over to LIM's 5th avenue building and wait for Sustainability and The Future of Fashion to begin; today we are meeting with Tim Coombs from Bionic Yarn. My third class for the day got cancelled and so I head home by taking the 7 train to Port Authority then taking the bus back to New Jersey. I get home and drive to get my nails done; simple manicure. Not sure just how bad nail chemicals are but based on the smell of the chemicals and acids in there, I can't imagine they're all that great for the environment. Next, I head back home in my car (non-electrical) and begin my homework. The rest of the night consists of dinner, a 10-15 minute shower, washing my face and brushing my teeth, then heading to bed. From what I have observed, my biggest environmental impacts are the choice of plastic products that I use such as makeup and toothbrush as well as throwing out cotton swabs every time I put on mascara. Another major impact is driving my car. Due to the fact that it is a 2004 Land Rover truck that takes premium gas, it is definitely effecting the atmosphere in a negative way. The only way I justify this is by not driving too often because I am a commuter but for my next car, I will definitely look into a more eco friendly vehicle.
Thursday November 15, 2018
Due to the fact that I only have classes on Monday and Wednesday this semester, today was a pretty simply day for me. In the morning, I took a shower while washing and deep conditioning my hair which led to a longer shower of about 25-30 minutes. I did my same routine as Wednesday with brushing my teeth, makeup, and breakfast in preparation for a 1:00 pm interview I had around Flatiron District. After getting ready, I walked to the bus again and took the bus to Port Authority. Once arriving at Port Authority, I took the N train to Union Square and since I was there a bit early, I ended up getting Starbucks to pass the time before my interview. I ordered my hot chai tea and opted out of grabbing the sleeve for my up to save paper as well as a straw (some people drink hot drinks with straws). Once I finished, I recycled this cup and walked over to my interview. After that, I met my cousin for lunch at Cava. Here we both ordered our grain bowls in their cardboard bowls and shared a drink in a plastic cup with no lid and no straw. All of these products were then recycled after eating. I headed back on the Q express train to Port Authority then waited 3 hours for the bus to come because of the back-up due to the snow storm. (Terrible day for public transportation). When I finally got home I made dinner, did homework, and got ready for bed while using facial cleaners that don't require everyday garbage accumulation. My biggest impacts today were taking a longer shower and using up more water as well as garbage accumulation throughout my day with my food/beverage purchases.
After tracking my two days, I realized that my environmental impact really is not too bad compared to many other people. However, this is easy to say as a pubic transportation commuter. It got me thinking about how people commute to work or school via car everyday and purchase coffees every day and maybe even choose not to recycle their purchases everyday. People who are not aware of their impact or simply don't care about their impact can do so much damage on a daily bases without even knowing it. My day to day definitely isn't perfect, and mapping it out in this way shows me the areas in which I need to improve. This is a perfect exercise for people to view their impact first hand and learn to adjust.
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