Shower Efficiently

The goal of this challenge is to decrease the amount of water used during your shower.  On average for someone living in the US, 80-100gallons of water is used per day.  The largest use of water actually comes from flushing the toilet.  Because think about it, you’re doing that at least twice a day, and for each flush about 3 gallons of water are needed.  But after that, shower/bath use consumes the most water.

Water flow varies from shower to shower.  Older showers use on average 5 gallons of water per minute, while newer, water-saving showers produce about 2 gallons of water per minute.  So if you say that (on average) about 3 gallons of water flow per minute for the average shower, think about how much water that uses for a ten-minute shower.  That’s thirty gallons for that one shower.

Reducing your water use during your shower is actually pretty easy!  For this challenge I turned the water off while I put on shampoo and soap, and honestly it wasn’t bad at all.  I was expecting to be freezing, but I wasn’t at all.  It was just slightly colder than I was while the water was running.  It actually made me take a shorter shower.  Most of the time when I’m taking a shower, I like to take my time.  So my showers are usually around ten minutes.  But after completing this challenge, my shower time went down because I was washing my hair and body a lot quicker than I usually would. Instead of washing my hair, standing in the water for a minute, and then using body wash, I did them one right after the other. After wet my hair I turned it off and in all, it was probably off for about three minutes.  So those three minutes saved 9 gallons, plus the extra minute and a half I saved on my overall shower time, another 4.5 gallons, so all in all, 13.5 gallons of water were saved.

I’ll definitely carry this practice on with me in the future.  It’s such an easy, simple change that really does make a difference.

Other water saving tips!

• Take shorter showers
• Coordinate warm water use with other house members
• Install a Low-flow shower head (can save up to 45% of the water normally used)
• Water volume controller

(All information obtained from EcoChallenge app and http://water.usgs.gov/edu/qa-home-percapita.html)

Most clothing that the majority of people own today is made from cotton. This soft, flexible material represents around 50% of the world’s textile production. Many people do not realize the environmental effects cotton has on our planet. Unless organic, most cotton is treated with synthetic chemicals. Cotton production accounts for about 25% of the world’s insecticides, and 10% of the world’s pesticides. About 8,000 chemicals are used in the processing of cotton. These chemicals are known to pollute our air and water, as well as our soil. Since the industrial revolution, cotton has been processed in factories, which leads to large emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Using the calculator on the eco challenge app, I was able to estimate that the amount of CO2 that was released during the production of my clothing could easily reach over 500,000 grams.

For this challenge, I had to purchase only organic or recycled cotton products. Again, since whole foods is the mecca of all things organic and sustainable, I went there to see what selection of organic cotton products they had for sale. I was completely shocked. The prices were ridiculously out of our decided budget! The only item that was in our budget range (20$ per challenge requiring materials) was a pair of socks.

14 dollars for one pair of socks.

     Everything seemed outrageously overpriced and I couldn’t understand why. One thin, zip up hoodie that looked like it could go for around 20 dollars at Old Navy was priced at 50 dollars. There was nothing particularly special about any of these items except for the fact that they were made from organic cotton.

So, I decided to head to the mecca of all things cheap- Amazon. Luckily I was there able to find a 100% organic cotton mens t shirt for about 5 dollars.

Besides this one lucky find, it seemed extremely hard to find any selection of organic cotton clothing that was affordable. I questioned this and researched further to find out why organic cotton is so expensive.

Firstly, organic cotton is more expensive because just like anything else that is labelled “organic,” the process of growing the plant itself is much more costly. This is due to the fact that conventional chemical methods are not used as fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides. Although those methods are generally unsafe to ourselves and the environment, conventional methods are used often since it is cheaper than using alternative growing techniques. There are also a variety of chemicals that are conventionally used during the harvesting process which are not used in the organic method of harvesting. Additionally, organic fabrics are more expensive to manufacture due to the fact that facilities that create fabric are often shared with organic cotton fabric producers and non-organic producers. This means that the organic producers must pay for the facility to clean the equipment from the left over residue of the non organic cotton. This also applies to the shared equipment in the manufacturing process. Finally, one of the major reason organic clothing is more expensive to produce is the fact that cheap labor or sweatshops are not utilized (http://organicclothing.blogs.com/my_weblog/2006/12/the_high_cost_o.html).

I realized while calculating the carbon footprint of the production of my wardrobe that (as I realize whenever I sort through my closet) I have a LOT of clothes. I think many people have this same issue where they have so many items of clothing however only really wear the same few outfits on a regular basis. I think that if more people switched to a more minimalist philosophy when it comes to clothing, organic cotton clothing might be something that more people consider. I think that instead of purchasing many shirts for very cheap, it would be wise to purchase only a few shirts that will be durable enough to last awhile. If this were the case, people may consider spending more money on organic clothing, but buying fewer clothes. I do not think that in our near future the price of organic cotton clothing will neccesarily go down, however, I think people must seriously consider what it takes to produce the clothing that they were.

I honestly think that this challenge has shifted my perspective on clothing. I, like many others, never really considered what went into producing the shirt I am wearing, who made it, and what the cost of it was. We often take for granted the things that are abundantly in front of us without second thought. I think that as consumers it is our responsibility to be aware of the items that we are purchasing and the effects it has on our environment.

Over the last century, plastic has creeped it’s way into almost every product we purchase. Whether something is made of plastic or not, it most likely is somehow packaged in it. There are so many different forms of plastic on the market and most of it isn’t recycled how it should be. Today, the world’s ocean contains 6 times more plastic than plankton. Every year 6.4 billion tons of plastic find their way into our oceans, a total of 18,000 pieces of plastic per km. Plastic bags are one of the most common daily uses of plastic. They are on average used for about 25 minutes, and take up to 100 years to decompose. It makes us ask, is that really worth it?

*Items include salsa, can of beans, potted succulent, yogurt, boxed coconut milk (not sure what its actually made of, it didn’t seem plastic, it is at least recyclable) and paper to go box of food. Most items in the store that were plastic free were canned and jarred goods. I definitely could not purchase a shopping list of food without buying plastic!

This challenge was extremely difficult, as you could imagine. It is nearly impossible to find anything in the supermarket that isn’t somehow contained in plastic. Even produce is normally carried in plastic bags. The first two items that I recognized as plastic free were canned goods and goods contained in class. There are a variety of goods that are made like this however the majority of goods in the store were packages in plastic somehow. I utilized the tips on the Eco challenge app gave to give me a few ideas on what to find as an alternative to plastic. One alternative to plastic is a material known as bioplastics. Bioplastics are created from renewable materials and are similar to plastic, however they are not made from crude oil. Most bioplastics are made from starch. Thermoplastic starches are created by using the starch from corn, wheat, and potatoes. This is mixed with water to produce different qualities that are useful for the product being sold, such as water resistance. Two items that I bought that were packaged in bioplastic material included yogurt and the potted succulent plant. The can I purchased was another example of a plastic alternative, as it is made from polylactic acid. Polylactic acid is a thermoplastic polyester derived from renewable resources, such as corn starch, tapioca products, or sugarcane. It is often used as a replacement to plastic due to its transparency. Polylactic acid is used to produce plastic wrap, cans, fruit containers, bottles, construction materials, lenses, and medical products.

The purpose of this challenge was not to bring cloth bags to the grocery store and bring home as much produce as possible, the purpose was to recognize how much plastic plays a role in our day to day lives. It is amazing to imagine how much plastic waste is produced just from purchasing food products alone. However, some companies are aware of this issue and chose to take action to become more sustainable in their packaging. I chose to shop at Whole Foods specifically since whole foods is known as being a company which takes initiative to become more sustainable. I found when I was at the store that although there were reserved parking spots for energy efficient cars, and different trash cans for different types of waste (landfill, plastic utensils, etc.), there were still tons of products contained in plastic, something that Whole Foods has little control over. I did some further research and found that Whole Foods actually created an initiative in 2010 by asserting new responsible packaging guidelines for all of its body care and supplement suppliers companywide. These guidelines were accepted by many vendors, with efforts being made to reduce the amount of plastic in packaging, switching to glass when possible, utilizing recyclable packing materials as often as possible, and using as much post-consumer recycled product as possible. Whole foods had also switched to post-consumer recycled (PCR) content bottles for many of their own store-brand body care and supplement products (http://media.wholefoodsmarket.com/news/whole-foods-market-implements-new-sustainable-packaging-guidelines-for-all-).

Unfortunately there is little we as consumers can do to combat this plastic issue. It is very difficult to completely stay away from plastic packaging. However, bringing reusable bags to the grocery store is one way to save many plastic bags from being thrown away into the environment. Hopefully more companies will take sustainable initiative like Whole Foods has in order to become more sustainable with our packaging of products.

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