Cole Christ

I tried to be better about reusing my gray water for other things, such as when washing my rice I instead used the water to water plants. I usually end up just dumping it down the drain, but it is around 6 cups of water that would end up getting dumped. So that saved me quite a bit. I also reduced my shower time to 15 minutes tops since generally I like to take somewhat longer showers.

This week I aimed for reducing my fish consumption or at least eating more sustainable types of fish. I tried to avoid buying fish from bigger brand names and grocery stores. Instead, I bought some locally and my friend had some salmon left over from a fishing trip that I traded for. I found that rockfish and lingcod were the other fish that were fairly sustainable to eat. Went down from eating fish 5 days a week to 2 days without buying from large chains. Will probably just aim to eat more sustainable fish because so much of my food intake is from fish and rice.

I did a few things to try and save a bit more electricity this week. Since it is getting nicer out, I started using my clothes dryer less and instead hanging things up to dry. Otherwise, most of my power usage is from the dishwasher and my computer running constantly. I have been working on being better at just completely shutting down my computer down at night instead of idling it or putting it in sleep mode. I am able to get away with not using the AC and have my blinds on a timer to block out the sun from heating my home up at peak times. That does use some electricity, but it is more consistent than I am at remembering, so timers are pretty key for me.

This week I tried to reduce the amount of takeout coffee cups I use. I usually buy 1 to 2 cups of coffee a day, so I decided to get a reusable coffee cup that I can just clean at home instead of throwing out 10 containers a week. Decided to reduce this first because it is one of my biggest throwaway items and I can easily weigh how much I am throwing out. Each cup was around 9 grams while the lids were around 7 grams, which was more than what I would have thought. The cups are made of paper, but have a plastic waterproof lining, so they have to go into the trash. Converting to using a reusable mug ended up reducing my paper cup usage for the week by 90 g and the lids are completely made of plastic which save 70 g.
By switching I no longer will be throwing out a pound of waste every 3 - 4 weeks, I did not realize how much it ends up adding up just by myself. My main obstacle for me was being consistent for the week. The cafe I go to was super cool about letting me use my own mug instead, which when I change things up sometimes, I get anxiety about it. It was cool to try and do, now I just have to be more consistent about it. Will be focusing more on meal prep and shifting away from plastic meal prep containers as the weeks go on.