Consumption

Day one of our "carbon cleanse" deals with consumption. One of the huge problems with American society today is how much we consume. The first part of this week-long unit urges us to buy less stuff. For some people this could be a really hard thing to do, but for me, I think I will do alright. The unit also says we need to save all of our household waste and recyclables for the week, which I have begun to do, but I think it could get a little gross before the end of the week due to the amount of fruit that I eat.

I would now like to talk about my weekly consumption, which is probably a lot less than most people. I honestly don't buy new things very often. I usually eat food on campus or eat fruit that I have bought at the grocery, and the only really regular things I buy are toiletries when needed. I do occasionally have my little splurge where I will buy something that pertains to my hobbies like cycling, motocross, etc. Those purchases do not occur too often, but one did occur this past Friday when I bought a new road bike, so I think I am done buying things for another few months. Clothing purchases only come about two to three times a year, and those are usually followed by giving a larger stack than I purchased to a thrift store. Consumption is a huge problem today because people just don't know when to quit. I have friends that will just see something they like and not even question not buying it on the spot. I always tend to think about things until I talk myself out of buying it. Statistics show that ninety-nine percent of products that go through our production system end up in a landfill in six months, which I think is incredible. I knew we threw a lot of things away, but ninety-nine percent is an outrageous number. We definitely need to work on how much we consume if we are trashing so much.

We will see how this week works out. In terms of consumption, I think I will do alright. I have a challenge coming up in that I am going to Atlanta for the weekend, so I will have to continue these things while out of town. The problem is I will be spending money on a hotel room, and will probably eat out for every meal, which could alter my consumption for the week. Through science classes and labs we learn that any experiment may have it setbacks, and a hypothesis can always be proven wrong. This weekend may be one of those setbacks in terms of consumption and my theory that I will not consume much this week could be proven wrong. Only time will tell...