what i plan to do this summer

In this first week of June, I am setting some green goals for myself, in some areas I can improve on.

First, I am going to get back to being styrofoam-free. I had been doing fairly well at bringing my own reusable container to restaurants, but after moving and subsequently visiting restaurants less, it fell by the wayside. While there are many reasons it's better to eat at home anyway, when I do go out to eat, I will make the conscious effort to arm myself with a reusable container. I've gotten in the habit of not ordering a drink where they are served in styrofoam cups (except for the damn daiquiri places...Looks like the end of daiquiris for me.)

Second, since I do eat at home more, I cook more. For myself. It's difficult to make just enough for one or two servings, leaving me with tons of leftovers. I do what I can to not waste food, but sometimes, there's simply too much for one person and I can't eat the same thing for lunch and dinner three days in a row. So my second goal is to do some research on composting. Since food is mostly what I throw out these days, I would love to be able to compost it, but I'm not sure just how feasible it is in an apartment complex. I also don't know what I would do with it once I have compost. I don't have a yard and my parents don't garden. Their next-door neighbors, however, do. I believe there is also a city compost. These are all things I can tackle in my summer compost research.

Third, I'd like to make the effort to conserve more. Energy-wise, I'm doing well at that. The lights in my bedroom and bathroom are CFLs and I need to switch out the dining room soon. I keep the lights off most of the time, especially during the day, and we run the air conditioner on the warmer side, using fans instead. But I'd like to try to consume less waste material, such as packaging or paper. I need to cut out the junk mail since it goes straight to my recycling bin. I need to find products that don't use as much packaging, and simply buy less in the first place, especially if it's not necessary. It's great to reuse and recycle, but I need to start reducing more. It's also a goal I want to try to implement in the office. We throw away too many newspapers immediately after receiving them. There has to be a way we can either not receive them or not receive so many copies. Another of my thoughts is if we have to receive so many, use them for box stuffing instead of buying bubble wrap and brown paper.

At the end of the summer, I'll recap how much I've done.

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