This intervention was eye-opening, and truly made me notice how much trash comes out of our everyday lives. The main thing I noticed was all the various packaging used to hold my food items. They were always bulky and seemed very wasteful. Before this intervention I never thought how important it is for our purchases to be sustainably packaged. When people buy items at the store they don’t really care how things are packaged. What they care about is the price and the contents within. All the packaging I collected throughout this intervention was saved outside my house next to the trashcans. By the end the cardboard and plastic packaging was stacked higher and wider than our trash can. Normally half that pile wouldn’t have even made it into the recycling!
Other than the packaging a big waste was using paper towels. At our house we have 5 guys and almost use an entire roll of paper towels in 1 day. This is what I noticed as a big problem for the environment as well. Paper towels are a one time use product and are very unsustainable. They could also be easily replaced by machine washable cloth towels. When we run out of paper towels this time I will try and persuade my roommates to pitch in to get a more sustainable option. In the end I am very glad i took part in this intervention and I look forward to changing my purchases and living more sustainably.
