| Date | Plastic | Paper products | Metal | Food (organic matter) |
| Tues 3/30 | 7 oz | 5 oz | 4 oz | 10 oz |
| Wed 3/31 | 9 oz | 7 oz | 0 oz | 19 oz |
| Thurs 4/1 | 8 oz | 8 oz | 5 oz | 17 oz |
| Fri 4/2 | 10 oz | 14 oz | 0 oz | 11 oz |
| Sat 4/3 | 21 oz | 12 oz | 3 oz | 16 oz |
| Sun 4/4 | 6 oz | 7 oz | 3 oz | 19 oz |
| Mon 4/5 | 9 oz | 12 oz | 5 oz | 9 oz |
| Total | 4.38 lbs | 4.06 lbs | 1.25 lbs | 6.31 lbs |
Over the course of one average week at school I discarded a total of 16 pounds of trash or 2.29 pounds per day. Compared to the average American who throws away an average of 4.4 pounds of trash every day it seems like I through away much less. However, everyday I throw away 2.29 pounds of material and food that could have been used elsewhere.
In all honesty I did not realize exactly how much I threw away on a daily basis. WHen I recorded everything I was able to examine how wasteful my practices were and was shocked at all that could have been prevented. In today's society it is easy to just throw things away after they have been used. Portable condiment bags and disposable utensils are the perfect examples. This viewpoint had previously blinded me to how wasteful I am because I was so accustomed to just throwing things away without any thought. Before the activity I did not feel wasteful as I was only contributing as much if not less than the average American.
However, after documenting my actions I realized that it doesnt matter how much others are wasting, I need to limit my own waste. Even though I throw out less trash than the average American, there is still a good portion of it that really is unneccesarily thrown away. Thus, I consider myself wasteful and irresponsible.
The category that I wasted the most in was food (organic matter). I threw out so much as I often found myself taking too much to eat from the dining halls and not being able to finish it. Becasue the food is buffet style, students find themselves getting whatever item tastes good without thought to wheter or not they would actually finish it. This is certainly my case. This is a regretful habit as wasting food is terribly wrong. There are countless individuals out there struggling to find food for survival and her I am wasting food indiscriminately.
in performing this acrtivity I found myself throwing away a lot of disposable items such as forsk, cups, and plates. America has this fascination with convenience and extravegence. Here we can quickly give someone clean utensils that can be thrown away without any thought or feeling of remorse. I believe this idea derived from the American fast food culture. We are always in a hurry and look for whatever is most convenient. However at home, my parents and I wash our utensils and plates and this really helps to reduce waste.
There are many things that I can easily fix in my daily routine to reduce my trash flow. By carrying around a refillable canteen, I can drastically cut out the amout of plastic I throw away from plastic water bottles. Also in my dorm I can use metal utensils that I can wash instead of disposable ones.
I feel like a lot of our problems regarding waste are exaggerated from living on campus. Bruin Cafe, Rendezvous Cafe 1919, and Late Night De Neve all serve their food in disposable paper containers. Everyone receives a paper cup and plastic lid and straw to fill with soda. All these get thrown away including the left over food. This is terribly wasteful as students tend to frequent these places every night. This leads to a buildup of trash as well as the view that a "disposable" society is perfectly acceptable.
This exercise really helped me to realize that I take way more than I need from the available world food and supply. I feel ashamed that i wasted so much food that could have been used to feed the hungry and the poor. Also all the trash I threw away required energy and resources to make. My current practices are not in line with Radical Simplicity because I do not stop to consider the share that people of other nations and places need. I have been selfishly taking as much as I want without thought to the repurcussions.
I know that I need to change my ways so that I can better help to preserve the Earth. This along with other practices will help me to be a better human being.
I like your insights about buffets. If the UC would create some other system of food service they would save money and students wouldn't waste food. You could create a system where you are penalized for the wasted food, i.e. the uC hands off the cost to you. Or another example,in Paris there are these student cafeterias all over the city that serve decent food at discounted rates to college students. You use your student ID to buy meal tickets where each ticket is worth one entree, 2 sides, bread, and a drink. No all you can eat. No going back for seconds, unless you pay extra.
ReplyDeleteThat is in fact a great system. I feel like it would also combat the infamous freshman 15.
ReplyDeleteThere is seriously a lot of waste generated there. If you stand by the trash line you could literally see just heaps of food being discarded.
we need to educate people on wasteful eating practices!