Month: February 2018

A new goal that I set for myself is to change my showering habits to be more environmentally friendly. Admittedly, my showers have been way too long, up to twenty minutes. To make matters worse, I use hot water the entire time. It’s excessive, I know, but I find long, hot showers to be so comforting. So I say sadly, it is time to give them up.

One of the main problems with long, hot showers is how much energy they use, as on average water heating accounts for 17 percent of a home’s electricity usage according to the Washington Post. Using up extra energy is bad because it is expensive and contributes to pollution. I calculated the approximate cost for what my hot 20 minute showers would take using this site: http://www.paystolivegreen.com/shower-water-and-energy-use-calculator/ It turns out each shower i take costs $1, which doesn’t sound like much, but that means it is $366 per year and could be cut down by half if I switched to 10 minute showers, which are still above the average of 8.2 minutes.

Both natural gas and electric appliances cause air pollution, but the process of creating electricity is significantly worse. Most of the U.S. electricity generation uses the process of burning fossil fuels, which is not sustainable since coal and natural gas reserves are predicted to run out in around 60 years. The burning of coal is especially bad because of the amount of greenhouse gases it releases, like CO2, which contributes to global warming.

If environmental and financial concerns aren’t a problem for you, then consider that long hot showers are also bad for your skin and hair. The heat causes the natural oils on your skin to breakdown,  leading to dry, itchy, and possibly red skin. Also, hot water makes hair more frizzy as opposed to cold water, which makes the cuticles close thus giving it a shiny appearance. I heard about this about a year ago and since then have always rinsed my hair with cool water, but only at the end of my hot shower. Personally, I do think this tip is useful in combating frizz.

All of these facts combined were enough to make me want to make a change and be more conscious of my showers. Some of the things I have been doing to make my showers healthier for me and the environment have been:

1. Turning off the water when not using it to rinse off. This sucks and I get cold as soon as the water is not pouring over me, but I tell myself that it’s for the environment and get over it.
2. Cut back on the minutes you are in the shower. Rather than standing and letting the water run over me, I make sure I am productive the entire shower so I can get out sooner. I can get to around 10 minutes as long as I remain mindful of what I am doing. It may help to set a timer to let you know when it’s time to get out.
3. Using lukewarm instead of hot water. While hot showers feel great, they definitely do irritate my skin, which is very sensitive and gets red and itchy. I’ve even been able to stop putting moisturizer on my legs and arms after a shower by doing this.

I won’t lie, I miss my hot showers and taking my time, but for the sake of my own body and my environment, I have decided to be more mindful of how I take my showers, and I recommend that everyone else does, too.

Sources

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/03/04/your-shower-is-wasting-huge-amounts-of-energy-and-water-heres-what-to-do-about-it/?utm_term=.462eb9fdb85e

https://health.howstuffworks.com/skin-care/cleansing/myths/hot-showers-bad.htm

https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.cfm?page=electricity_in_the_united_states

Since coming to Penn State, I have tried very hard to decrease my impact upon the environment, especially the amount of trash I throw away. In many ways it was more difficult to reduce my waste at school, because I found myself buying more packaged food for eating on the go, but in many ways it became easier. I found that I had much more control over my waste because there were so many options for recycling and composting. I began to wonder if I could keep better track of what I was throwing away. I then remembered watching a video on YouTube probably a year ago about a woman who hadn’t thrown anything away in four years. By collecting all of her trash in a mason jar and recycling, composting, and not buying what she couldn’t, Lauren Singer was able to live a zero-waste lifestyle. Here is the video in which she goes through the contents of her jar:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuABgFsv5pw

I figured that I might as well try the same thing, if not permanently then as a sort of experiment. I had two small glass jars that I got from my mom and was determined to try my hardest to throw nothing into the landfill-bound trash can. In reality, attempting to go zero-waste was more of a challenge than simply an experiment.

I found some of the biggest challenges to be centered around food. It was easy to buy items and use a reusable bag to carry them, but some of the food I bought was not packaged in recyclable materials. This was both good and bad. Bad, because I would have to take up room in my jar to dispose of the packaging, but good because I was less inclined to eat the packaged food, which was usually heavily processed. I found myself eating more and more at the dining hall too, rather than taking my food to-go, in which case it would come packaged in Styrofoam which is not recyclable. Eating out was also difficult because not finishing my food meant that it was likely going in the trash, not the compost. However, most of the trash I did have that was unable to be recycled was small enough to fit in my jar.

I made it an entire month. For one month I obsessed over what I consumed and what I got rid of, and I learned a lot from it. One negative outcome of my experiment was that afterwards, though I was letting myself throw away trash, I felt really bad about it. It often gave me anxiety to actually throw something away for a while. It did, however, teach me how to be mindful of what I bought, used, and threw away. Though I am no longer restricting my waste as much as I did, I have been able to reduce my waste just from paying attention to it. I highly recommend challenging yourself to being zero-waste for awhile to see your own impact on the earth.Here is my jar!