Eddie Stewart

This weekend I bought a couple things that let me continue doing something sustainable. One of my classes is in the evening and I get kind of nervous biking to class when it is pitch black at 6pm, so I finally stopped being lazy and bought a rechargeable bike headlight and backlight, as well as a bright jacket. These items might not directly let me be more sustainable but they let me bike with a slightly lower risk of being hit by a car.

The past few days, I have been focusing on reducing my waste. I have done this by refilling some of my containers instead of rebuying consumable items like soap, detergent, and shampoo. I bought gallon containers of each and I am refilling my older quart-sized containers. This reduces my plastic waste by not having to rebuy the smaller containers each time I run out, instead I can buy larger containers much, much less often. This also has the added benefit of saving money!

This weekend I ran out of paper towels. Instead of buying more paper towels just to later throw them away, I have started to use old rags instead. This is pretty nice since I can use one rag instead of 3 or 4 paper towels for the same thing and I just wash them with my other towels instead of throw them away. Whether it is more sustainable to use cheap disposable paper towels or do extra laundry to wash rags is a question that probable doesn't have a 100% correct answer, but at least this way I have less trash to take out!

Yesterday, I went to the farmer's market and got some fresh Strawberries, pears, and potatoes as well as some lunch from a local business. Two things about shopping at the farmer market is really nice. Firstly, it is literally next door which means I don't have to drive! Secondly, interacting with people is way more fun than scanning everything at a self checkout machine.

This week I decided to combine two of my favorite things: reducing waste and saving money. On Sunday I made an entire pitcher of Cold Brew Mocha instead of getting coffee from a coffee shop. I made enough that I only had to make it once to last the whole school week. I was amazed at how little trashed I had compared to normal, since I wasn't getting a disposable cup everyday. It was also nice being able to save $3.49 a day.

This weekend I went to Mt. Tabor, while walking around I realized how loud the city can be. Even in the middle of the park I could still hear traffic and construction. I grew up in a very small town so the idea of actually having to travel over 10 miles to get away from the sound of humanity is a little foreign. People have really taken over this planet, our physical space might seem small but the sounds we blast into the air and the lights we project have an enormous impact.  While I appreciate large green space's inside cities, I have a hard time calling them nature. For me nature is being able to close your ears and only hearing the sound of birds or bugs, it is looking up at the night sky and seeing the galaxy without light pollution. Can humanity and nature truly coexist or is this strange faux nature the only green environment compatible with humanity? Sure, remote locations devoid of human industrialization still exist but will they endure?

Rather than buy a new blanket I decided to try to fix this one up. Unfortunately my only knowledge of sewing comes from watching Grey's Anatomy so it doesn't look good, but it gets the job done!