Week Three + Thanksgiving

Week three was just about the same as week 1 and 2. My initial goals have been reached and my lifestyle has changed to an extent. Recently I have noticed that in my apartment and everywhere I go really, cultural norms encourage us to consume more, think less and care less; even when we are being conscious of our consumption. These cultural norms have also made it hard to become more sustainable because of the nature of the appliances we invent, the cars we make, the kind of energy we burn, etc. This is all pretty disheartening but luckily this thanksgiving I was able to start a compost pile for my parents. For as much as my parents cook I thought it was more than appropriate to start collecting scraps and leftover newspapers for composting. My mom was totally into it and wanted to learn more, so I made a composting bin and began the initial process in producing compost. By the end of thanksgiving my whole family had composted around 1-2 pounds of scraps. Now that they are conscious of there food scraps hopefully they will continue to compost and maybe even apply some of those changes to other aspects of their lives. With the family it is interesting because it is so easy to make little comments about wasteful consumption and the amount of energy we use etc. but one cannot fully understand the reality of wasteful consumption and the benefits of reusing, reducing and recycling until they see and experience it for themselves.