Today in class we got our charts describing the sustainable and non sustainable things that we do in our daily life. We had a class discussion about the topic.

Sustainable things I do in life:

1. Use of LED instead of incandescent lighting– they are long lasting and energy efficient
2. Turning off all devices before sleeping as well as unplugging them- Most of the electronic devices draw electricity even when they’re off. It helps in saving energy and reducing electricity bill.
3. Using Cloth instead of paper towels– saves paper.
4. Using rechargeable batteries– Batteries are made up of a variety of chemicals, some of which are extremely toxic and can cause soil and water pollution. Most of us know batteries aren’t a great thing to throw into landfills, and rechargeable ones solve that problem while saving you money and space.
5. Using stainless steel water bottles
6. Taking stairs instead of elevator
7. Timing my shower- Listening to music and making sure to shower in 3-4 songs.

Non Sustainable things I do in life:

1. Drinking coffee- the process of turning coffee cherries into ready-to-go coffee results in a lot of waste. Purchase shade-grown coffee and also compost the coffee.
2. Leaving appliances plugged in- there are appliances that use what’s known as “phantom energy” even when they’re turned off but left plugged in. Some of the worst offenders to consider unplugging when you’re not using them are routers and modems, computers, and video game consoles.
3. Not carpooling-  reduces transportation costs as well as carbon emissions from a car.
4. Online shopping- emissions from delivery trucks ferrying online-ordered packages to customers is creating serious issues, including a disproportionate amount of pollutant emissions.
5. Washing my face- face wash have tiny microbeads which do not get filtered and later on pollute water and harm marine life.
6. Using plastic straws- using disposable utensils of any kind introduces a lot of unnecessary waste into the environment.
7. Flushing the toilet- we can save up to seven gallons of water per flush.

Ma’am told us to pick up something small from this discussion and become more sustainable and follow it. I stopped eating chewing gums and started using public transport frequently to be more sustainable.

We were made into groups and given different topics, we got Waste Management as our topic and we had to make a chart on that topic as well as talk about it.