I learned numerous things from participating in this challenge. The first one is that starting small with your goals is okay. I mistakenly made 6 goals for my challenge when I only successfully completed 3 of them. Even though I didn't accomplish every challenge, I still learned so much about how I can lessen my footprint. I was mad at myself at first for being overly ambitious but trying to do something about how you live is much better than doing nothing at all. There are more people in the world that are just trying to live their lives and survive, and do not have the luxury of trying to live a greener lifestyle (poor infrastructure, poverty, food deserts, lack of education/information, etc.); I am very privileged to be able to find out ways that I can live better and, further, go out and do those things.
Another thing I learned is how hard our system makes it for us to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle; it's like they do not want us to be healthy and like there is not choice but to consume in a wasteful way. Conscious consumption is also difficult because of green washing. As part of my challenge, I adopted a needs vs. wants mentality for when I shop (I shop a lot so I figured this would be a great thing for me to at least try) and when I would go to the store to buy a natural product (example- buying apple cider vinegar to clean over conventional cleaner like Clorox), they always came in smaller portions and were much more expensive. A 32 ounce glass jar of Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar from Walmart is around $5, while a gallon plastic container of Clorox Bleach is $3. Another thing is that companies try to sell people on buying "natural" products by using certain key words, images, or colors on their packaging, in order to suggest that the buyer would be spending money on an environmentally friendly product from an environmentally friendly company. Even companies like Clorox do this now; I saw green bottles, words like "natural", "safe" and "non-toxic" and images of flowers, trees, and smiling faces. I already knew that capitalism was problematic and fake, but this was a brutal reminder of that fact. I am lucky to have knowledge of how companies try to cut corners with price in order to hook buyers (make money), and how that degrades our environment (additions to production process: waste, waste, waste). Having this information is key in order to make educated buying decisions.
The final thing I learned from this challenge is that I already do many things to lower my impact already. A couple examples of this are: I try to buy everything secondhand; I buy most of my food in bulk (to avoid plastic packaging); I do not use toxic chemicals in my home for cleaning, laundry, hygiene, pets, cooking, etc.; I buy most of my products from local companies and try to support companies with solid ethics and sustainable practices; I recycle everything I can and only buy things I need; and I do not drive somewhere unless I have to. However, in spite of doing these things (among other things as well), there are always ways that I can be better. I still fall back on old wasteful habits (like using single use plastic, using plastic bags at the grocery store, buying brand new clothes, using toxic cleaners, etc.) but doing this challenge has helped me figure out solutions to change these habits. For example, instead of using plastic bags at the store, I learned to keep my reusable bags in the cupboards and also in the car so I never forget them when I go out. When you go the store a lot, even doing something this small makes a huge difference.
