Now that I have (mostly) conquered my goals... why not add another?

I was trying to think of a new goal that I would be able to make progress on this quarter. I already try to be conscious and aware of my environmental impact on a daily basis. I have thus far been able to reduce the amount of electricity I use by switching to a power strip in my bedroom and going around my house and turning off all the unnecessary lights that are left on. I walk to school every day and try to ride my bike or take the bus to work at least once a week as opposed to driving every time I work. I think my biggest issue with this goal is timing. There are only so many hours in a day and I take advantage of every single one - I NEED to be better about making extra time to ride my bike or wait for a bus. 

I thought of a new goal that I am going to try really hard to follow for a week, just to see how it goes. I work in a restaurant - an industry that is notorious for the amount of food waste, electricity use, incorrect paper disposal, and many other issues that go hand-in-hand with the fast-paced environment of trying to please managers and customers while enjoying your job. (I really do enjoy my job, regardless of what my tone suggests... sometimes ;)). 

There is a lot of room for improvement in the restaurant business in regards to being more sustainable. One that I am going to try and tackle is the way that my paper receipts are disposed of. For every table, if everyone is paying together, I have to print 2-4 receipts depending on if they pay with cash or credit card. If everyone at the table is paying separately, this number increases even more. The only receipt I need to keep as a server is the one that says "merchant copy" at the bottom. The customers have the option of taking the "customer copy" and any other receipts they wish to take (either the original declaring the total or the zero-balance), but most customers leave the rest on the table. For the next week, I am going to try and take all of the receipts that I find on the table that I don't need and instead of throwing them in the garbage in the back, which is the typical routine, I am going to keep them in my apron until I can find somewhere to recycle them. This will be extremely difficult when I get a bunch of tables and am busy focusing on other things, but that's why I think it will be an important goal to try and achieve. I want to see how the first week goes and then decide how to proceed from there. 

I already tried asking my manager if we could place little bins near the computer print-out stations and he said that it provides sanitation issues. I think he is feeding me a load of bologna and don't buy that. It would be a small and simple change to make but in the long run would greatly increase the amount of paper that is recycled as opposed to thrown in the garbage. 

In addition to this new goal, I am going to purchase a re-usable coffee mug at the VU in order to participate in the new mug project. I am, unfortunately, extremely addicted to coffee and really just love the taste of it in the morning. I also have a meal plan on campus and with this plan come dining dollars that I do not hesitate to use every morning on my usual stop at The Coffee Lady or the VU. That's right... I said EVERY MORNING. Ridiculous, I know. Hopefully enough people have been participating in the pilot run of the mug project and we will see its continuation in future quarters. My goal is to have purchased my re-usable mug by the end of the week but hopefully you will see me with it in class tomorrow!