My Attempt at No Impact Week

Day 1 - Consumption
On the first day of No Impact Week, I realized how much a truely do consume. Before, I never really noticed it but when it is the center of my attention for a whole day - or week for that matter - the truth comes out. On this day, my main focus was on how I could go about doing the rest of the week. I did, however, wash my plastic silverware for reuse rather than simply throwing it away, as I usually do. Also, instead of going through multiple bottles of water and juice this day, I drank a bottle of grape juice in the morning and when I finished it, I filled it up with water from a water fountain.

Day 2 - Trash
I'm sorry to say that this was my least successful day of the entire week. It really put things into perspective for me. Though I continued using the same plastic bottle all day, refilling it at the water fountains on campus, I also bought a smoothie in a plastic cup and several individually packaged foods at the grocery store.

Day 3 - Transportation
I'm am embarrassed to admit how much I rely on my car. I live all the way in Blanco and my laziness levels are increasing daily, so usually I drive to a parking garage in the middle of campus and walk to my classes from there every day. But on this day, in order to decrease my impact on the environment, I walked everywhere. I am sad to admit that after this day, I went back to my old ways of automobile reliance.

Day 4 - Food
As a student, I have limited food options. I tend to stick to the food that the dining halls provide me and the limited supply of snacks that I have stocked in my room. On this day, the only thing I really did differently was the farmer's market. I am hoping that this farmer's market will not be a one-time-thing because I know that if it is not right on campus, I will not be going out of my way to go to a farmer's market any time soon.

Day 5 - Energy
On this day, I researched all the things that use up energy and a lot of them surprised me. I was not aware that by leaving my electronics plugged in while I'm not using them was using up energy. After I became aware of this, I unplugged everything when I left the room. I'm going to try to make this a habit from now on. So far it's going pretty well.

Day 6 - Water
On this day, I found out that it is pretty much impossible for me to go an entire day without using water from faucets. But I did try to take a much shorter shower and didn't let the water run longer than absolutely necessary while washing my face, brushing my teeth, and washing dishes.

Day 7 - Give Back
I'll be completely honest: on this day I focused more on myself than others. I went to the State Fair where I'm sure I made a terrible impact on the environment. After all my steps forward from earlier in the week, I took a giant leap backwards.

Day 8 - Eco-Sabbath
On this day, I didn't consume much but it was kind of unintentional: I was in Dallas so I spent half the day exploring the aquarium and the other half in a car. Both my cell phone and camera were out of batteries so I wasn't using electronics for most of the day, which was a nice change. This was simply a nice, relaxing day for me. I enjoyed myself and the beautiful weather.

-Shelbi Macfarlane