Bottle Barriers

As I continue observing my new sustainable behavior of not wasting water bottles, I have found that focusing on making this new behavior more convenient is the key to succeeding. In addition, letting my family know about this behavior change has been proven helpful. I believe reminders and removing barriers are the theme of making this behavior stick. In addition to my family asking me periodically how the behavior change is going, I have left sticky notes in my room and also by the door to serve as reminders. These notes simply say “Water?” and are reminders to fill up my refillable bottle while I have time. That way, even if I am in a rush, I won’t be tempted to grab a plastic water bottle on my way out the door.

Also, to remove convenience barriers I am using a two-bottle system. This means that I have an active bottle on me and a backup in my refrigerator for when I need it. By doing this, I will not have to worry about filling up my bottle immediately and can save that task for when I have time. I think this system works for me because I made it a part of my routine to fill both my active and backup bottle at the same time so I will rarely have to do it on the fly. Having this system integrated into my daily routine makes it a lot easier to achieve my desired behavior. Eventually, it will be a force of habit and not a behavior change I have to even think about.

It has been several weeks of engaging in this more sustainable behavior and I have no reason not to continue it after EVST100. To be honest, if there was no way to make this convenient, I don’t know if I would continue it. Sure, it is a lot easier to be wasteful, but the difference in effort is so minimal that stopping this behavior would be for no good reason. To ensure that this behavior continues, I will use the last few weeks of the semester to further integrate this behavior into my life to the point where I don’t even remember the wasteful lifestyle I had been living previously.