Personal Action Plan Draft

Heres a draft of My Personal Action Plan I have taken up for this class!

WHAT

INTRODUCTION

Over the past fifty years there has been an increasing concern for landfill space, and a general questioning on the concept of landfill waste on a whole. One of the ways society has found to combat this issue is through the idea of Recycling; the adaptation of a reduce/reuse methodology. Over time as science has explored the realm of possibilities on the matter one crucial method has come about: composting. The idea of composting is really not a difficult one to grasp. Gather specific organic materials and carbon-based leafy materials, and let nature do its work essentially. The science of the procedure is much more in depth than this and I will show you my research in class.

WHY

CONCEPT

I have chosen this to be the topic and central focus of my personal action plan because this is an up and coming area of environmentalism and it is extremely important. This personal action plan is highly unique because it starts after a month and a half of implementation. So, in early September I took the ecological footprint measurement test and it told me that I require 3.2 earths to sustain my lifestyle. This is a staggering, yet incredibly effective way of notifying a person of their impact on the world we live in. I live in a house on Moorhead, and my roommates and I actually chose to live distant from the school so that we could have a yard to grow vegetables in. This motion to do so was brought about by the fact that as college students’, food is quite expensive in our eyes and organic and local foods are even more so.
So in August, we began collecting all organic waste produced by our house in a couple of buckets. This was a very elementary way of starting up the collection process but yet effective. Flash forward a couple weeks time and we had already collected two buckets full; so we then built a 3x3 frame structure to house our collection. As time progressed and our house increasingly became conscious of all the possible compost-able items our output was greater and greater. To research the subject and find out anything and everything on composting I went to the library for book sources and online journals which I have sited at the end of this paper.

FRAMEWORK

My assessment of the problem is based on the ideology of sustainability. My goal at the beginning of August was to begin to rid myself of many of the hazardous actions our society tends to run with. My house mates and I all share this same philosophy so essentially I have driven them to the point where this is their pseudo-action plan as well. We choose not to have cable, we recycle, we compost, we have a fireplace so we will not heat our house this year, we bike to and from everywhere, we shop at sun flower market for the things we need, and down the road we even have a water collection system we are going to implement. The goal is eventually to be off the grid and not impact our living ecosystems in such a negative way, but this can only be done by one step at a time in my eyes.

HOW

GOAL

My goal is to have my household produce less then two 13-gallon bags of non-recyclable trash per week. This goal will be a difficult one because my house as of right now (much improved from august) still produces about four-five 13-gallon bags of trash a week. This is the only measurable goal in the timeline of this class; however, it needs to be noted that this is not just for this class. This is a framework that has been in the making for months and will continue throughout the rest of my life and hopefully my housemates’ as well. The compost is not a measurable device in the timeline of this class due to its slow process of decomposition, however; it is the basis of the measurable goal and the foundation of this project, so it is in context.

MEASUREMENT

Measurement of progress will be very easy. Every time trash goes to the curb I will note the amount as well as the amount in commingled containers and mixed paper likewise. I will also continue my measurement of the compost collection as the year progresses.

STRATEGIES

My method and strategies for achieving this goal is first to
· Reduce purchasing of items with non-recyclable packaging.
· Reduce purchasing of items with excess packaging.
· Increase and implement stricter recycling code in my house. If unsure if an item can or can’t be recycled, look it up. Do not trash it. This is typical avoidable laziness.
· Increase awareness and collection of all compostables within my household. It is not waste if it is compostable.

CONCLUSIONS

As a member of a young generation, my actions are incredibly influential and impressionable. Part of my difficulty with the concept of environmentalism is that it really asks the individual to step up and take action. I feel that I have a duty to change my predisposed wasteful behaviors and help to change others’ behaviors as well. All it takes is the individual to become a leader. As humans we were given so many tools that set us apart from other species. The ability to organize is one of our greatest tools, and yet in terms of a global idea like environmentalism, we are incredibly lacking. I believe that the individual can make a difference and I am going to do so starting small scale with big things in mind.


Sources

“Compost Manual.” The Compost Manual. 2008. http://www.compostmanual.com/

“Compost Guide.” Compost Info Guide. 2007. http://www.compost-info-guide.com/