Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Blogprompt 1 - Sustainablity of your lifestyle

What actions could you (in theory) undertake that would improve the 'sustainability' of your lifestyle? What might be preventing you from doing these?

Like many people in the world, i want to lower my carbon footprint, help the environment and become more sustainable however i have found that i am held back by costs and general lazyness.
- The obvious thing i would do is recycle as much of my waste as possible, which is becoming easier as more products are becoming more recyclable. Despite this, some products still can not be recycled easily as they are a mix of materials and this would mean sorting out my rubbish which takes time.
- I would leave products on standby when they are not in use however i find myself to lazy to do this. Plus if i do, i have noticed that may settings are reset and i do not have the time to keep changing them back. Similarily, i would remember to turn lights off when i am not in that room however a mixture of lazyness and a bad memory stop me from doing this simple task.
- I would buy products that are more environmentally friendly and/or the materials come from a sustainable resource, however this could become expensive. I have noticed that some of these "sustainable" products do not have the same satisfactory levels of the regular products i am used to purchasing. I find myself wondering if i should have purchased my usual product
which is more econmically sound on my bank account rather than a sustainable product , even though it is more environmentally friendly.
- I could find a job and help my parents by more sustainable products, however i would rather spend my time at home on the computer or reading a book rather than working shifts in a shop. I could also offer to help out more around the house, doing jobs and saving my parents from extra petrol costs but once again i am stopped by my laziness.

I have tried to mend my lazy ways. I now walk to Avenue campus from my home (a journey of approximately 2 miles) and shuttle bus to Park, repeating this process to get back home. I try to by products that i actually need rather than want (as we throw away approx. 1/3 of our food a year, at least 340,000 tonnes still in date www.wrap.org.uk) and products that are environmetally friendly and come from a sustainable source, however this is only achieved if the price is right. By realising my mistakes, i have began to take action and i can only hope that everyone else realises this soon so that we can begin to save our environment.