Personal Trash Inventory

1. I definitely thought that I was wasteful before this exercise and sadly, I am still pretty wasteful. I did take notice of how wasteful I am and am trying to find a way to change it. I realized that I use lots of Kleenex and toilet paper which is probably because I was a little sick this week with a cold. Also, I used lots of red cups and water bottles which is really wasteful. I also threw away lots of glass bottles and aluminum cans, which is a bad sign. However, I did recycle them, which is pretty good. I am slowly becoming more sustainable because of this exercise. I experienced guilt about the trash I produced, which would never have happened before this exercise. I also changed some of my habits, including reusing plastic water bottles.

2. The area that I was most wasteful in was definitely paper and plastic waste. I used lots of paper via toilet paper and Kleenexes. The water bottles were the most wasteful because I drink a lot of water and I never think to refill the tin water bottle. I also poured lots of juice drinks in red cups which produced lots of waste. The waste was bad because I knew it could have been avoided. Aluminum cans are also a bad problem that I had but I recycled them which is a way I can reduce my carbon footprint. The problem with water bottles can be avoided by using a reusable water bottle. I believe this is a good resource. Also, if you are pouring yourself a juice drink, you can have everyone bring their own mug to the party.

3. My cultural values represented in the trash inventory is pretty terrible. I am wasteful and have not ever thought twice about it. I throw away lots of bottles and cups which is a problem. It gave me really good insight into how terrible my waste habits are. It also showed how much juice I drink which is bad for my health. All that sugar and waste is not a sustainable practice for life. The red cups are also a bad habit. They are useless and if everyone brought a mug to drink, then there would be no need for red cups and there would be so much less waste in the world. My familial values show that we did not care for the environment and followed a very consumeristic approach to life. We rarely reused as children and recycled very little. This has changed in the past 2 years however, because we recycle EVERYTHING now. There are four large bins in our backyard where we separate the trash into its respected bins. We also changed the way we shopped by shopping at Trader Joe's and used canvas bags. My mom did this because the food is fresher, but you buy less. It also conserves gas because my mom would drop my little sister off at school, pick up groceries for the next 2 days and then would do the rest of the work for the day.