We all start from different places, hopefully to end up somewhere together

It's been about a year and a half since this project commenced - my choices have become subconscious now, and I no longer have to think about "trash-free"ness or things of that sort. I think that if you are committed to something, if you are committed to personal change, you move from one state of subconscious to another state. It is difficult to say when that transition happens - it is a sort of gray state of mind - but the changes are real, they are hopefully permanent, and they hopefully serve as a foundation to the continual journey that each one of us needs to embark on to achieve a lasting harmony with people and place.

Everyone talks about sustainability vaguely, many times using lofty rhetoric or abstract words. But what does sustainability mean in our daily lives? What does dealing with climate change really look like? The best view you will get will be from your own experiences, given that change is something you are willing to accept. Indeed, talk dealing about sustainability and climate change without fundamental changes in our worldview and our daily behaviour is impossible; anyone telling you otherwise is either lying or not acting in good faith.

What we do know is that this culture, the burdens it puts upon us, our choices, and their subsequent reinforcements to culture are all unsustainable. They are unsustainable in different ways, depending on where you live, where you grew up, and what your current subconscious dictates you do. I grew up in India, and it didn't seem "natural" for me to able to buy something as readily as you may here in the US. At the same time, for people that grew up in the US, not using toilet paper doesn't seem like the accepted, the culturally defined way to be. Of course, in the end, this is a very unimportant example compared to something like the accessibility to personal transportation and so on. But it serves as an example, a tangible example of the spectrum of detail that we must address, of the spectrum of choices that different people in different places will have to make. In the end, the places we must adapt to are the places we live in. Each place is unique, and each place has its own pressures. Sustainability here doesn't look like sustainability there.

But we must recognise, admit, and fully accept that we have a problem. It is only then that we will be willing to do something about it.

The options are there. We just have to make the right choices.

I had tremendously positive responses my no-trash project during Earthfest this past week. Students, faculty, staff, and residents were truly fascinated and shocked by knowing how it is possible to generate so little trash after six months. Of course I mentioned that cutting food packaging will get most of us 90% of the way there. I was asked about how difficult it actually is to generate no (or very little) trash. The overwhelming answer is that it is terribly easy, for several reasons...

Jason mentioned that doing something like this is just like switching from eating meat to not eating meat. Once you get used to it, you are used to it. I like to think of it as a subconscious state of being. Let's take this example of switching from non-vegetarianism to vegetarianism. Imagine you go to a restaurant. In your non-vegetarian state, you don't think twice about ordering meat at a restaurant. You know, subconsciously that you do eat meat, and that it is okay to do so. Now imagine you go cold turkey and say, "No more meat!" The first few times you go out to a restaurant, you may feel tempted to order meat, because it was only a little while ago that subconsciously, it was okay to order meat. Now you have to remind yourself that you don't eat meat, and you just focus on the vegetarian options on the menu. However, after a while, one month, two months, you internalise subconsciously that you are a vegetarian, and you don't eat meat. The fact that meat is on the menu doesn't even bother you, because now, you are a different person. This is exactly how it works with generating no trash. You change from one person to another person after a transition phase, and you just stop thinking about it.

This wonderful town of Ann Arbor is set up for each one of us to be creative and thoughtful and challenge ourselves to make a difference. We have all of the options right before us. There are vegetarian restaurants, and non-vegetarian restaurants, and restaurants in between. There is a beautiful urban centre and wonderful nature preserves that surround us. We can shop at Kroger, or we can shop at the People's Food Coop. We can satisfy our cravings at Bivouac, or at Kiwani's Club. In the end, the options are there. We just have to make the right choices.