Consumption

Generally, I try to watch my consumption on things that have an affect on the environment. And I think I do a pretty good job compared to my peers. My biggest thing right now is recycling. I recycle almost everything; mainly plastics, glass, cardboard, and aluminum. Recycling helps the environment because we reuse things instead of putting energy into making new one. I've found that it also saves a lot of trash bags from being used. This in turn saves me money and makes one less thing that I use. Also, I don't have a car, which means I don't drive much at all.

But on the other hand, I do consume quite a bit. I'll admit that even though I don't own a car, I use one whenever I have access. I'm not a big fan a walking places, especially in the cold, early morning. I used to have a bike and used it quite a bit, but now that I don't have one anymore, I drive a lot more often. Also, I own a lot of electronics that probably use a lot of energy. I try to keep my electric use down when I can by turning off lights when I leave a room and things like that. Awhile back I found out that just leaving a charger plugged into the wall without it charging anything uses a lot of energy, so I try to keep that to a minimum.

Materialism is something that I try to stay away from. I think its a huge problem in this country because we have so much access to pretty much anything we want. But in reality, we don't need a majority of these things that supposedly make our lives better. Things like a huge TV's, big trucks, and any luxery that uses electricity. People like nice things, and I get that, but the real question nowadays is do we really need them?