Robin Hand

This week, I tried to be extra conscious of my water use in the house for things like showering, washing dishes, and doing laundry. I conserved water while washing dishes by turning the water off while I was washing and just turning it on quickly to rinse. I also reused leftover water from cooking projects (like making pasta) to water my garden. I tried to be as efficient as possible with laundry, doing full loads on cold to get the most out of the water I used. I have been more aware of how long my showers are, and I generally tend to take 10 minutes or so. I only shower once every 3 days though so that isn't an area where I feel like I need to cut back necessarily.

This week, I planted herbs and tended other plants in my garden. I am currently growing garlic, potatoes, kale, beans, cilantro, and arugula. I've tried to put more energy into making sure my plants are doing well, and hopefully soon I'll be able to harvest a little. The garlic is doing really well, which is very satisfying because it's been overwintering, and soon I'll be able to enjoy the fruits of my hard work. I also finished clearing out some invasive English ivy from part of my yard, which was covering almost half the yard when we moved in. I raked out the remaining roots and replanted some native wildflowers. They haven't sprouted yet, but maybe next week! I had also resolved to go to a farmers' market this week, but unfortunately didn't make it. I'm hoping to go next Sunday.

This week I focused on making sure lights were turned off when I left a room and turning off appliances when I'm not using them. It was challenging because I live with roommates, and I realized they leave their lights on a lot, but I didn't want to be constantly asking them to turn their lights off. I focused on the lights in the basement, which is where we have our laundry and the lights are almost always on when I go down there. I've made a habit of checking them when I walk by the basement door. I also unplugged all my chargers that tend to just stay plugged in even when I'm not using them. This was a pretty easy adjustment, and now I don't have to unplug my laptop charger to plug in my phone because the chargers are all in a drawer. I also chose to switch to using cold water for laundry, which is an easy switch that I hadn't even realized could save so much energy. I did try hanging my laundry out to dry, but our landlord sends landscapers to work on our yard and we never know when they're coming, so my roommate brought my clothes inside right before they got blown to the ground with a leaf blower.

For my challenge this week, I decided to do a personal waste audit. I tried to be really mindful every time I threw something away- what was it? why was I throwing it away? Did it serve a purpose in my life that could be served by something that wasn't single use? I found that most of what I was throwing away was food related. Almost everything I buy at the grocery store seems to come in plastic of some kind, aside from fruit and veggies. It's interesting to me that there is such a large conversation about bringing your own bags to the store, but the main problem to me seems to be the plastic that so many products are already packaged in. At work, the main things I threw away were gloves and paper towels. I use plastic gloves both to avoid spreading pathogens and cross contamination of food, and also because the sanitizer solution we use irritates my skin so I can't come into direct contact with it. I'm not sure what the solution is here. I think one reason restaurants are so unsustainable is because we have to use so much single use plastic just to follow health code. I think one positive thing I've taken away from working in restaurants is that I'm now much more conscious of the waste associated with take out food. I try to only dine in when I'm eating out, rather than getting food to go. One change that would be pretty easy if people were interested in it would be to start normalizing bringing Tupperware to take left overs when eating out. Even though a lot of takeout containers are that brown cardboard material that makes them look "eco-friendly," they are lined with petroleum-based wax to prevent leakage. This sort of turned into a tangent, but the conclusion is that I'm going to continue this waste audit and see if there are other ways I can throw away less, especially when it comes to groceries.