Blog two: Personal Change

                There are probably many things I could change in my day to day life to live more sustainably. The short amount of time I’ve been in this environmental class, I can’t help but notice the different things I do in routine everyday that has a negative impact on the environment around me. One main thing that sticks out to me is the way I waste water. A good description of this is not being “water wise.” I found this saying in an article I read on how much water we waste daily. The article I came across made me feel better and worse. I was able to see that I’m not alone when it comes to wasting water, but also seeing how much damage it can do in the long run. The main way I waste water is my showering technique. In the dorms sometimes, it takes a minute for the water to get warm. I will let the water run while I am doing other things, like straightening up my room. I usually don’t let it run that long, but it takes around 5 minutes for the water to get to bearable temperature. I never really thought of the amount of wasted water that is until thinking from a sustainable standpoint. This water is being wasted and running back to the water treatment facility or the sewage. Compared to other countries in the world we have one of the best access to clean water, and for me to literally let it go down the drain is not very considerate on my part. Another way I am not “water wise” is throwing away bottles of water that still have water in them. This can also be bad because I don’t recycle the water bottles when I do throw them away. That’s another personal change I could make. When I drink the water out of the bottle I never finish all of it and it ends up sitting on my dresser. When I am thirsty again I want a cold bottle out of the fridge. This repetitive cycle ends up with me having about 5 bottles sitting around with room temperature water that I don’t want to drink. I usually end up throwing these bottles in the trash with the water still in them. I really take water for granted when I think about it. For both scenarios, there are other options that I can utilize. With the shower water, I can try to not run the water for so long. This is easier said than done.  With the bottles, I can be more resourceful and put the unfinished water bottles in the fridge right when I am done with them. Also, I can recycle the bottles! This change should not be that hard and should positively impact my life and the environment. I should be able to keep up this life style being that I am really the only one who controls this. I will be able to limit the amount of wasted water, which might not be a huge difference when we are speaking worldwide but every part counts.

Alexis Waters-Peterson