Week 3:
It's important to have clear goals and objectives to bring clarity and focus.
What do I want to achieve through this behaviour change project?
I want to lessen my impact on the environment through reducing the amount of plastic I use and dispose of.
How many people do I need?
I will need to have my flatmates on board and find obliging organisations that support plastic free living.
What resources do you have?
There is a lot of information available online that will help, websites like myplasticfreelife.com that give 100 ways to live a plastic free life are a great resource to get ideas. Also, Plastic Free July (n.d.) is a great resource for implementing this change with helpful tips and stories on people who have gone and are going through this change. For more resources on how to live a more sustainable life, check out my 'Sustainable Living' blog posts.
For more resources on how to live a more sustainable life, check out my 'Sustainable Living' blog posts.
What time frame do you have to work with?
For this assignment I have 10 weeks to not just find alternatives but implement change in a way that will continue long term.
How specific/generic is the behaviour you’re looking to affect?
At this stage the behaviour is quite general as I am looking at reducing the amount of single-use plastic I use in any way possible.
How important is your project, really?
On a global scale, Jambeck et al. (2015) calculated that 4.8 to 12.7 million metric tons of plastic entered the ocean in 2010. This was generated by 192 coastal countries, that collectively produced 257 million metric tons of plastic waste in the one year. This is predicted to continue to increase unless interventions are put in place. This amount of plastic entering the oceans is significantly harming the ocean’s ecosystem (Mattsson et al., 2014).
What do you want to achieve through your project?
Reduce my personal consumption of single use plastic by 80% by the end of the 10 week project. This will be measured through my food shop, which currently includes a lot of plastic packaging.
Moment of truth…
I realize that by recording my plastic consumption I can also see the amount of junk food I eat …
It’s hard to buy food that isn’t in plastic, I am going to need to make some changes on what I choose to eat, especially when buying lunches and snacks.
Goal for next week:
No buying junk food in plastic packaging.