As a college student it is extremely hard to execute any form of sustainable behavior due to a few different reasons, one being that many sustainable actions are inconvenient and another being that a truly sustainable lifestyle is quite expensive- and money is something college students don’t have. With these reasons combined, it is clear to me that this season of life simply does not permit the kind of changes that need to be made in order to lead this kind of lifestyle. Although I cannot live a sustainable life to its full potential in this chapter of my life, I do have goals for the next, where I will hopefully have the means and the convenience to carry them out. Here, we will explore these goals and examine the significance of them in terms of their sustainable impact.
- Composting
Composting has been a goal of mine for many years now. My aunt and uncle have been composting for as long as I can remember and have taught me the many benefits of it, one of the most significant to them being that it can be used as fertilizer for their gardens. According to the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) composting is also highly useful for preventing polluted runoff, insulating carbon into soil to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and regenerating poor soil.
2. Gardening
Gardening is such a fascinating element to sustainability and arguably the one I would be most interested to explore. This particular method of eco-consciousness takes an incredible amount of labor and resources to begin and maintain, however its long-term benefits will significantly outweigh these costs. Building my own garden will help prevent overwatering, reduce plastic waste from food packaging, and reduce methane emissions from food waste.
3. Attempt at Zero Waste
Accumulating zero waste will likely be the most difficult goal to accomplish within this list. Since coming to college and living on my own I have been made highly aware of the amount of waste I create as an individual person and I will say it is more than I’d like to admit. Some of the top contributing methods I would use to reduce my daily waste would be shopping with companies that sell in bulk and at package-free grocery stores, using reusable bags, cups and containers, shampoo and body wash bars, and using reusable menstrual products.
4. Reduce Overconsumption
In my opinion, reducing personal waste and reducing my overconsumption tendencies go hand in hand. When I like a certain product I tend to buy it in multiple different colors or styles (because obviously I need five different Owala water bottles!!). However, my closet is particularly impacted by overconsumption. One way that this can be avoided moving forward is shopping sustainably through thrifting, buying clothes made with recycled materials and upcycling. In terms of reducing overconsumption in other aspects of my life, I hope that simply having restraint from buying things I don’t need will prevent me from further over-buying.
5. Have a Small Family
Arguably, this goal will have the biggest impact on the collective movement towards eco-consciousness. Here, not only will my lifestyle change towards a sustainability focus, but my family’s will as well. Along with that, having a small family also dramatically reduces food and water waste, greenhouse gas emissions, plastic use, as well as a general decrease in the strain on the Earth’s resources. Considering the possible fate of the planet when it comes to climate change, many people are discouraged from having kids to begin with, including myself, for the simple fact that it would be unfair to bring another person into a world that is burning.