Leave No Trace

Daily writing prompt

Are there things you try to practice daily to live a more sustainable lifestyle?

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I’m not a fan of the term “lifestyle.” Although it’s been around since 1929, I tend to believe it’s overused and has become somewhat narcissistic. Therefore I don’t describe myself as having a specific “lifestyle”.

I don’t feel “sustainable” and “lifestyle” go together, but “sustain” and “life” do, and it’s about with how we live and care for where we live.

When backpacking or hiking, there’s a common rule: Pack your trash out with you.

In the wilderness it’s our mantra to “leave no trace.” I don’t damage the the environment by clearing areas to camp, building fires in wilderness protection areas, washing dishes in streams. I’m a guest in a place wildlife call home. When I began hiking, I did not find this rule difficult to adhere to. It was simply an extension of practices I had begun putting in place years before.

I am an American, and I and my fellow countrymen are some of the worst at practicing habits that promote sustaining life on our planet. Our “lifestyles” are based on materialism, a poor model for preserving the resources of the earth.

I did not think much about this when I was younger, but having been forced to liquidate several estates for family, I have adopted a more minimalist attitude towards possessions and consumption in general. I’ve thrown away a lot of people’s treasured belongings after they had passed that frankly nobody else wanted. Stuff they never needed. I’ll be honest. I have purchased a lot of items over my lifetime I just didn’t need. I’ve engaged in activities that were wasteful and foolish. Late in life, I decided to clean up my act.

I’ve made some simple changes:

1. I stopped buying clothes on impulse. I have lots of clothes. I don’t need any more, and don’t make purchases because of fashion. I hope you don’t either. I’m not impressed by what you are wearing when you pass me on the street. In fact, I didn’t even notice you, regardless of how outrageous the costume. It’s the norm these days. If my shirt is not worn out, I don’t buy another. I see the jacket on the rack and ask myself, do you really need that? I already own too much. If I apply the Pareto Principle to my wardrobe, I am probably wearing only 20% of the clothes I own. The rest are sitting in the closet. I don’t need any more taking up space.
2. I don’t own a car. I have owned the same motorcycle for 20+ years. Only one. I rarely ride it now. I regularly bicycle commute to work. No car insurance, limited exhaust, limited fuel consumption, small carbon footprint, good exercise. For longer commutes, I sometimes take the bus. By the time I get home, all my work was done on the commute while someone else drove.
3. I go to bed when it’s dark. I use LED lighting instead of incandescent bulbs. I do less laundry. If it’s not dirty, I don’t wash it. I save water, electricity, and less soap goes down the drain into our waterways.
4. I use my feet. I walk to the grocery store. I pick up my orders when I can to avoid shipping. The amount of commercial vehicles delivering good to our homes in the U.S. is at an outrageous level. Remember when your neighborhood was quiet and Amazon trucks were not dropping off on your street five times a day?
5. I drink water. You may not believe this, but clean drinkable water comes out of a faucet in my house! I am lucky. This is not a given across the world. Yet the grocery stores sell the same water in tons of plastic bottles. Walk through the grocery tomorrow, look at the shelves. Thousands of products in plastic. Shopping carts full of plastic bottles trundle out the door bound for the landfill- tomorrow. Recycle? It’s not even making a dent in the flow of plastic that is produced. Is there an alternative? As I type this, I take a sip of water from my glass . It costs me pennies. I dispose of nothing.
6. I rarely print documents at work. If I am operating a company vehicle, I shut it off when I am stopped. I see motorists sitting in their cars idling, in parking lots. Is fuel free? You do not save your engine or fuel by idling.
7. In winter, I turn down the thermostat to save energy. I wear a sweater.
8. When I hike I carry a small bag. If I can pick up and dispose of one piece of cast off trash, I’ve helped reduce humanity’s impact on our environment.

I have decided owning less, meaning maintaining less, needing space for less, consuming less.

I cannot deny that I still use valuable resources and am wasteful. I travel- a lot for work and for pleasure. Air travel, rental cars, hotels, all travel expenses are dirty and wasteful. I do my best to offset those items by trying to be sustainable where I can.

Ole’ Jack knows consumers are necessary for a healthy economy. You might wish to attach any type of anti-capitalist label to me in the comments, but over consumption does not benefit the consumer, it benefits the corporations, and shareholders that try to sell all that stuff. I’m no longer a cow to be milked for corporate profits.