Reflecting on Taking My Lunch To Go

Here it is, the final week of my PSP to pack my own lunch made with local organic products and use a reusable water bottle. The experience has been eye opening in that it hasn’t really been a challenge. I enjoyed planning my lunches out for the week, and going to the farmers market to pick out produce and groceries. I calculated that I saved roughly $15 each week by packing my own lunch and not consuming bottled water. By packing my own lunch I cut out four weeks of one time use containers. I also cut down on my total weekly driving by consolidating my car trips to purchase groceries to two trips.

To measure the impact of my PSP I’m going to start with bottled water. I normally drink about the equivalent of five bottles of water daily. Three of the equivalents would actually be bottled water that I purchased. Over the course of a week I would drink 21 bottles of water. My PSP is four weeks long, which makes the total water bottles saved  84. That number seems pretty high when I calculate it out. According to the International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) benchmarking study “1.32 liters of water and 0.24 mega joules of energy are used to produce every one liter of finished bottled water” (“Water,” 2014).  That means I reduced the amount of electricity I consume by 20.16 mega joules, which is enough electricity to run a 100watt lightbulb for six hours. I also reduced my water footprint by roughly 27 liters. That’s a lot for just packing a water bottle around with me.

Calculating how much of an impact purchasing local organic food has is more complicated. From research I did online, I could only find that the carbon footprint difference between organic and non-organic food varies largely by crops. This means that the impact of purchasing organic food was mostly just keeping the pollutants, like pesticides and herbicides, out of the ecological system. Calculating the impact of purchasing local produce is difficult too, because I would have to know where the produce would have be coming from if I had not bought local. I estimate that the difference in impact would have been great.

I believe that my PSP wasn’t an inconvenience, and actually was fun for me. During my PSP I also got my friends involved by getting them to go the farmers market with me. Checking out the local goods and socializing with others there make it hard to have a bad experience, plus seeing all the fresh produce makes it equally tough not to take some home. I learned that making small changes can have an impact that is bigger than it seems. I also see that sustainability doesn’t have to be an idea that only requires sacrifices. If anything, I personally benefitted economically by making my own lunches and reusing a water bottle, I benefitted socially by going grocery shopping with friends, and I benefitted environmentally by reducing my carbon and water footprint.

References:

Water and Energy Use Benchmarking Study: Executive Summary. (2014, October 24). Retrieved July 17, 2015.

Photos Retrieved From:

http://theilladelph.blogspot.com/2007/08/in-praise-of-philadelphias-delicious.html

http://localfood.ces.ncsu.edu/food-system-supply-chain/

https://www.facebook.com/Corvallis.Albany.Farmers.Markets/photos/pcb.10153449751263745/10153449750023745/?type=1&theater

I’ll Take my Lunch to Go Part 3

Week three of my PSP to make my lunch with local organic food, bring it to school in a reusable container, and use a water bottle. So far my PSP has been easier than expected. The biggest hiccup so far is using all the produce I buy before it goes bad. Organic produce goes bad faster than normal produce, so I have about two or three days to consume it. Having to throw spoiled produce away stinks because it is counter-intuitive to my PSP, and it feels like I am just throwing money in the garbage. So far the only failure that I’ve made was forgetting my water bottle. This was inconvenient because I could not drink water during I class. I was tempted to buy a bottled water, but chose to just use the drinking fountain as an alternative.

On a lighter note though eating local organic food has definitely improved the quality of food I eat. I have been eating more veggies, partially because they’re cheaper than organic meat and cheese.  The heat wave that we have had has me craving lighter meals like salad. This works well because packing a salad is simple. The only negative to this is that during my bike ride to school the salad warms up a bit, and lowers the appeal of it.

I have realized during these past three weeks that making small changes and small sacrifices are easier than I thought. The rewarding feeling of knowing that I’m doing my part to help local sustainability is worth the personal economic cost. The effort I put into my change has been fairly minimal, which shows that it is an effort that most people should be capable of making. If you are interested in taking action like I am here are a few links that can help you get started.

• Corvallis/Albany Farmer’s Markets
• Eco-friendly Food Containers
• Eco-friendly Water bottles

References:

N.d. Cafe Press. Web. 10 July 2015.

Chinese Chicken Salad. N.d. Noel Piepgrass. Web. 10 July 2015. <http://www.noelpiepgrass.com/5-great-salad-ideas/&gt;.

N.d. Food Navigator. Web. 10 July 2015. <http://www.foodnavigator.com/Market-Trends/UN-strategy-A-sustainable-and-               inclusive-food-economy>.

N.d. Oregon State University. Web. 10 July 2015. <http://extension.oregonstate.edu/news/release/2015/02/osu-host-small-farms-conference-feb-28&gt;.

So Far, So Good

So far in my PSP I have managed to stay on track with my goals. On Saturday I rode my bicycle to the Corvallis Farmers’ Market and purchased all of the vegetables I will be needing till next Saturday. The farmers’ market was interesting, and a bit more expensive than the ones where I grew up. The produce I bought was all locally grown, and looks very delicious. For the rest of my groceries I went to a super market that sells organic products.

Packing lunch and my own water has been fairly easy so far. I believe that planning the lunches out for a week before hand really helped. If you are interested in planning your own lunches here are a few ideas. The only thing difficult about bringing my own lunch is finding a comfortable place to eat it. Bringing water has been useful as well, especially with the heat. The only thing that I can say is a negative is the water warms up as the day goes on. To prevent this I try to drink the water before this happens.

So far the costs of switching to locally grown organic food and using a water bottle have been minuscule. I would have to go to a grocery store and compare prices of the food they carry and the food I bought at the farmers market. From what I have seen the prices are about 20% higher, making my weekly grocery bill go from about $60 to $75. The water bottle I use is actually a bottled water bottle. This means that the bottle did not really cost me anything.

So far I have been enjoying my change. The lunches I have been making have been delicious and simple. I have also been using recipes that don’t require a stove which is nice because it doesn’t use up electricity and heat up my already hot apartment.

I’ll Take My Lunch To Go

In the name of sustainability, I will be bringing lunch and water to school with me in reusable eco-friendly containers. I will also try to only purchase local organic products and produce to use in my lunches to further reduce my environmental impact. If i purchase produce in season and watch out for expensive lunch items, taking my lunch to go will also help out my wallet.

Bringing lunch with me in a reusable container connects with the environmental and economical pillars of sustainability. Bringing lunch with me in a reusable container will affect the environmental pillar of sustainability because I will not be using one time use paper or plastic containers that would end up in the dump. This reduces waste, and the impact waste has on the environment. Using a reusable water bottle will help reduce the estimated 2.5 million tons of CO2 emissions used annually to produce and transport bottled water (Hu, n.pag.). To also improve my environmental impact, I will be purchasing local organic products for my lunches. Purchasing local products reduces the carbon emissions emitted while transporting products and produce to consumers.  Purchasing organic food reduces the amount of toxic chemicals that enter the local water systems, as well as my systems. Bringing lunch will also affect me economically. Using local organic food to make my lunch and bringing a reusable water bottle will be cheaper than purchasing lunch and bottled water near campus.

I believe that packing a lunch to school will be an easy task if I plan ahead of time. Forgetting or procrastinating will make the task more difficult. This will make me tempted to either purchase lunch at school, or just skip the meal altogether. Having to plan out a weeks’ worth of lunches, purchasing the items needed all at once, and remembering to make the lunches will be inconvenient. This action does not have a large scale impact on the earth, but I’ll be doing my part.

Citation

Hu, Zhihua. “Bottled Water: United States Consumers and Their Perceptions of Water Quality.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. Ed. Lois Wright Morton and Robert L. Mahler. Molecular Diversity Preservation International (MDPI), 21 Feb. 2011. Web. 26 June 2015.