Assignment 4-1

Today when I was taking out the trash I realized something, I use significantly less then when I was a kid. In fact, my trash bag is the smallest it’s ever been. When I was younger I remember wheeling out a giant 55 gallon trash can to the curb and sometimes even two. Granted this was for a family of five at the time and now it’s just down to two. I maybe take out two small grocery bags of garbage now ever since I’ve become what we call today “environmentally responsible”. I find it strange that since the climate debate and lack of resources that has haunted the media for years is actually taking its toll on my behavior.

With this shift in behavior and responsibility, my recycling bag is huge in comparison to my garbage. In fact the trash cans are totally different in size, the one for garbage is a tiny bedroom trash can while the recycling is a larger pop top trash can. I find myself recycling anything and everything; I would attribute this new behavior to the social trend of today. As kids, we lived by the mantra of use and throw away. Now I’m buying products only made using recycled material or material that can be recycled after the product is done. Along with this, I’ve been avoiding any product that contains harmful chemicals that can damage the environment if it were to be emptied into the drain or cause damage to the ecosystem. The question that comes to mind now is, does this make me a new age hippie?

The media and pressure to be energy conscious and environmentally friendly has altered my behavior completely. Everything is recycled except for a few items, I’m using everything LED or energy star rated, I’m even composting food scraps in this little worm bin. When I was in my teens, none of this was in my mind, I had never even heard of energy efficient bulbs, composting garbage and recycling was limited to just soda cans. You never notice the impact of popular culture on yourself until you analyze your behavior and why you are doing it.