Allow me if you will, to set the scene, it’s Valentine’s day and you have no date, no lover to speak of, however what you do have is a ridiculous tradition that you’ve kept up for 5 years and have no intention of breaking this year. The tradition to speak of is every Valentine’s day you drink Soju and eat chocolate cake with a boy; doesn’t have to be a boyfriend, just a boy. We will not be going into the sexist ramifications of why I insist that I cannot spend Valentine’s Day with a female friend that is not the point of this specific piece.
Anyway as per tradition you are getting ready to go to your guy friend’s apartment to drink Soju and eat chocolate cake. Life is good, sorta. Well the biggest problem you have is discerning if your guy friend is into you like all your friends say he is or if he’s just a very overly nice friend, like I said, life is good. But then, your mother calls. You have just finished putting on your waterproof mascara, which you will soon realise is not as waterproof as advertised. Long story short, you’re cut off, no more unlimited money, the rest of the day is a blur of crying, going to your friend’s house and crying more, drinking and waking up hungover and realising just how screwed you are.
I understand this probably doesn’t paint the most flattering picture of me and to be honest it’d be deserved but all this to say; sustainability has never been something that’s on my mind, it just so happened naturally and so, even for you dear reader, I am here to tell you sustainability can, not only be natural it can also be incredibly cost effective and to some extent add more to your daily life.
My actions in becoming said poster child
Walking
Obviously the first thing to be cut was the globally infamous expensive tube. I was lucky enough to live within walking distance of University. Though on some days my classes were in another campus that was 2 stations away it was still walkable, arguable anywhere is walkable right? Jokes aside, according to UK Government’s Department for Transport (DfT), walking(or cycling) instead of taking the train are the greenest modes of transport, producing absolutely zero emissions at the point of use, which plays a huge role in reducing one’s own carbon footprint.
Though walking when possible is not only sustainable and cost effective it’s genuinely good for you, ignoring the obvious health benefits like how according to World Health Organization (WHO) brisk walking improves cardiorespiratory fitness, reduces symptoms of depression and anxiety, and lowers the risk of chronic diseases. From personal experience walking is not only a very good way to ground yourself, it also gives you time to be with yourself with limited distractions, it gives you a period of time with relative silence with yourself. In a era where there is noise everywhere so much so it’s hard to hear even your own internal monologue, sometimes it’s healing to be able to just be by yourself and walk. Walking also allows you to find and notice beautiful spots and things that you would’ve never seen had you taken the train. So while the tube was cut for me, improved health, both mental and physical was gained, and can be gained for you too.
Cooking
The next thing to go was eating out and ordering in. It was arguably the most difficult but also the most rewarding. What I noticed almost instantly was outside getting coffee or eating meals out there’s very few things I did to hang out and spend time with my friends. Maybe that says more about me than anything else but I wasn’t willing to stop spending time with my precious friends so cafes and restaurants both became my accommodation; super sweet sugary drinks that masqueraded as coffee became tea and overpriced often bland food with a tea candle became home(accommodation) cooked meals with my laptop. Learning to cook of course was a learning curve but as long as you could follow instructions for the most part I believe anyone can cook. Cooking at home not only gives you full control on how much to make and how it tastes, it also helps reduce food waste.
According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Food Waste Index Report 2021, in a global scale, retail and food-service (restaurants, catering, hospitality) generate about 931 million tonnes of wasted food per year, obviously this is hugely detrimental to the environment. Another personal reason I believe everyone should cook is not just the obvious one of it being a basic survival skill but also that fact that cooking is a directly rewarding experience, you cook and you get to eat what you cook, you work and you get rewarded, it’s a grounding experience especially in the era of instant gratification, doing something as simple as cooking can help to ground yourself into reality.
Reusable water bottle
Finally the somewhat easiest and smoothest transition I had was switching from bottled water to a reusable water bottle. The thing that surprised me most about having to do this was how expensive bottled water gets when you actually sit down and calculate the accumulated cost of buying 3 bottles per day, you realised how much money you’re wasting. However when you get down to it, it’s also a lot of plastic waste, which was something I didn’t realise until I stopped buying bottled water and magically my room wasn’t filled with empty plastic bottles I had to trash. WWF says that 19 to 23 million tonnes of plastic waste leak into aquatic ecosystems every year most of which come from plastic packaging and more importantly single use bottles. While switching over to a reusable water bottle didn’t give me some deep insight about myself or life in general it was a practical thing I did that resulted in not only saving money but also being more sustainable.
Conclusion
When it comes down to it, my journey per say, to becoming sustainable wasn’t one I went on willingly, much like how Frodo got thrown into it. However it was one that I’m happy to say not only resulted in my own life being improved on the daily, it also helps the environment.