Zach, Callyn, Braiden, and Ally
October 14, 2013
Project #3
Food Packaging Waste
Looking through the class’ journals and
Instagram posts, it is easy to see that the number one contributor to your
average college student’s waste is food packaging. We walk into the grocery
store and grab a 6-pack or ramen or a box of individually wrapped fruit snacks
without thinking twice about the unnecessary trash that is a result of a simple
meal or quick snack. Between classes, studying, and trying to make room for a
“college social life,” convenience and efficiency are the primary needs of
students. Companies are constantly trying to make their newer products less
time consuming and chose college students as one of their main targets. The
whole world has become so reliant on the convenience and efficiency of our
world, especially our meals.
Through analyzing waste we realize how much
of our food trash could have been avoided by another method of cooking that
same exact food. Noodles, soups, vegetables, pastas, pizzas and many other
foods have different formulas for their easy-to-make options. Although these
are convenient, they create much more waste than other methods of making this
food would create. Part of the need for these products is the lack of
accessibility to proper cooking utensils and kitchen appliances in dorms, but
this is also due to the fact that an easier way to cook things is more
appealing to the average American. This shows a lot about the way Americans
work in that we are more concerned with making our lives easier than helping to
maintain the health of our planet. This seems like an exaggeration but in all
truth food waste is becoming a huge issue in landfills and is growing as
companies realize this need for convenience and meld their products so that
they sell more.
A substantial variety of trash was found
around campus including food wrappers, cigarettes, bottles, paper towels,
balloons, plastic bags, and even frisbees among other items. This diverse and
expansive list continues, as does America’s endless addiction to trash, no
matter the type or shape. Yet, reviewing the class instagram of litter around
the school, it is evident that the most prominently misplaced category of trash
is food packaging. With people constantly eating, a real problem has
unsurprisingly developed in our society. While landfills are abused by all
sorts of trash, the food packaging industry is a place where solutions already
exist that could divert waste from landfills allowing the individual consumer
to avoid wastefulness and contribute to a healthier cycle of reuse rather than
to an inefficient linear production system. As discussed in “The Story of
Stuff,” we cannot continue on forever addicted to this system. Author Edward
Humes agrees in his work “Garbology” admitting, “what no one considered… is
waste’s oddest, most powerful quality; we’re addicted to it.” We have arrived
to a point where breaking our addiction cannot be done on a single level. On
the production level, the simple switch, for example, from plastic packaging to
compostable packaging or from a landfill-bound juice packaging to a recyclable
aluminum can would eliminate the amount of food packaging waste in landfills significantly
saving our atmosphere from consequent dangerous gas emissions and conserving
resources. However, as trash piles and we continue to pretend we aren’t harming
the environment, the question remains: why haven’t food producers taken
initiative if it is so simple? We have come to love the convenience of
disposability without even taking into account that rerouting the linear
production system into a circular cycle would not diminish consumer convenience
but only bring greater efficiency.
Encouraging producers and consumers alike to
make choices to benefit the environment will be key in progressing towards a
sustainable zero waste world. Although, without the participation of producers,
little progress can be made. Even the most zero-waste-dedicated individual will
end up producing unwanted landfill trash if there is no other option. The
transformation from practically total waste to zero waste will be a difficult
journey but one that will be worthy of the input resources in the long run.
With the dangers of waste in mind, the world as a community should attempt to
open the eyes of their neighbors to the existent and simple solutions and head
towards a sustainable zero-waste future beneficial to all.
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