Since my awareness of sustainable consumption issues has increased by taking the 'Theories of Sustainable Consumption' module, I have began to think a bit more about activities such showering, which before now I have just done without any such thought. Something I have wondered is that mMaybe I wouldn't have got into this routine of multiple showers each day had it not been for the need to be clean in order to fit into modern day society.
Before travelling to Mongolia in the summer, I had heard that Mongolians don't tend to wash very often. This may be due in part to them not having the same abundance of clean water as we do in the western world, but may also be linked to society not dictating such a level of cleanliness. Although I would definitely say that the locals we met out there had a certain 'scent', it was not one which was particularly unpleasant, nor did I naturally associate it with being dirty. I think this demonstrates the extent to which certain actions in our lives are taken out in order to ensure we fit in with society, and often without us thinking if they are necessarily 'rational'.
A discussion in one of the seminars led us to discuss the general idea that it was more sustainable to take a shower than a bath. However we noted that this would only apply up to the point when you showered long enough for you to use more water than it would have taken to have a bath. The time taken to reach this point has likely decreased in recent years due to the emergence of the 'power shower'. This prompted me to wonder how my showering habits would compare to taking a bath. As our shower is situated over the bath I left the plug in while showering to see how much water I used. Much to my conscience's relief, it turned out that shower had only resulted in a few centimetres of water in the bath (no I wasn't sad enough to measure!).
