I saw my manager dump the packaging that came with his lunch and got to think about how much waste people generate. There are 6 other people with me at work. I bring lunch from home, one guy goes home for lunch. The other 5 buy lunch. I was shocked to see that we are affecting our environment so much even with such a simple act as having lunch.
The guy who drives home for lunch, does so, because he does not use the microwave and eats only freshly broiled or steamed foods for health reasons. Again, he is only an example I am using to explain a point. He cares about his body, but not so much about the environment. Hidden from most people's perception is that our bodies can only be as healthy as our surroundings.
Coming to the lunch we buy. It comes with a plastic bag, a paper bag, a carton in case of Chinese food, a Styrofoam box, a big cardboard box for pizzas, plastic spoon and fork, little packets of seasoning and may be a bottle or can of cola. Lets say the packaging weighs a mere 100 grams per person, that's half a kilo of mostly non-biodegradable waste just in my office. There are 8 million people in NYC. Then there is a huge floating population and visitors (43.8 million in 2006). Lets assume that a million people eat out everyday (easily). 100 grams per person makes it 100 tons of waste per day.
There are approximately 250 work days in an year. So New Yorkers alone generate 25,000 tons of waste per year just by having lunch. What a criminal waste of resources!
I agree. We do generate a lot of waste. What is even worse is the amount of bottle waters that so many people use. Why do people use so many? I've had one plastic water bottle that I've had for years. When I finish drinking from it I simply refill it. But I know people that go through at least two a day - so at least 730 a year - and throw everyone of them away. At least recycle them if you aren't going to refill them.
Cans are also horrible. I've seen people that drink 3-4 sodas/energy drinks a day and throw away all the cans. At least recycle them!
Last edited by Afaceinthematrix on Sun Oct 28, 2007 10:14 pm; edited 1 time in total
Yeah, it truly is a waste. I am guilty of the water bottle habit--I know that I should go buy a refillable bottle to bring to school, but I keep forgetting it. It doesn't help at all either that we buy huge 24-bottle cases of water. 
However, I bring the bottles home and throw them in the recycling bin, when I can. Same thing with other bottles and cans. There is no excuse, though, and I should get me that water bottle. Thanks for posting this as a great reminder.
I absolutely hate Styrofoam boxes and cringe each time a person would puncture holes in them [CFC gas gets released]. A good way to cut down on trash is to cook your own food. Among all households in the neighborhood, ours generates the least amount of garbage just because we don't do takeout and cook our own food instead [Chinese take-out MSG would take its toll on you]. The rest of our neighbors buy their food all the time, and so there's just a lot of trash out there.
What I really find wasteful aside from lunches, water bottles, and all that are those annoying fliers and ads that come in the mailbox. Sure, you can opt out and all that, but they still keep on coming! Imagine the number of trees that they cut because of their silly advertising!
On a related note, I'd just like to share pictures from this fascinating art exhibit that shows us how wasteful we are:
Depicts 170,000 disposable Energizer batteries, equal to fifteen minutes of Energizer battery production.
Partial zoom of the batteries. Detail at actual print size.
Depicts two million plastic beverage bottles, the number used in the US every five minutes.
Partial zoom of the plastic beverage bottles. Detail at actual print size.
See the entire exhibit here. You are definitely right and it is a big problem, but our society as a whole is just like that.. but you could definitely start small and end up with a huge positive effect if you start being aware of these facts.
It actually struck me as quite interesting that a lot of bakeries and whatnot throw out their food at the end of the day. I mean, the other day, I was speaking with a friend who works at dunkin donuts, and she said that at the end of the day, whatever food they have has to be thrown out, and can't be given away, or anything, due to health regulations.
Now, I know it sounds really odd, and a little off track of what's being discussed, but it's another vantage point of wastefulness in eating. I personally wouldn't have any qualms about eating a donut that's several hours old...I plan on going to the back of one of these stores at their closing time.
Ironically, just as I opened this thread and started to read it a short bit about how plastic bottles are made came on the Discovery channel. I just learned that all of the bottles you buy with water, or soda, or peanut butter or whatever cannot contain more than 10% recycled material for structural reasons (re-processing changes the properties of the PET plastic), and for hygiene reasons, they can't contain any post-consumer recycled material. So, just because you recycle, it doesn't mean we are using any less plastic for all the water bottles we buy and toss out.
As a truck driver, I saw huge amounts of waste. We once had a whole trailer full of grapes that had to be destroyed because a few of them were fuzzy - that's 20 tons of grapes because one case had mold. Once we were carrying roses for Valentine's Day. They were rose buds in glass vases going to (a huge discount chain that shall not be mentioned) and we had four cases of them refused because the buds were just a little bit too open - they were blooming. Now, if it was just the roses, no big, but they were in glass vases and all wrapped up pretty with colored paper and everything. We were told to dispose of them. What a waste. (So we disposed of them by giving them to the ladies who work at the fuel desks at truckstops all across the country as a way to say thanks for putting up with grumpy truck drivers all day - got a lot of smiles.)
We had to throw away meat, vegetables, fruit, and bread enough to feed an army - all because they had some tiny flaw, even if most of the stuff was still perfectly edible. And this is considered perfectly acceptable losses by the companies involved. They expect to lose a percentage of their product.
I think about all of that food that had to be destroyed every time I see one of those commercials with the starving children, and it makes me want to cry.
Oh yeah, you're right, but this is, sadly, what many people want - they don't want to worry about bringing stuff from home or use a lunchbox or a bottle.
I refill some 1,5l PET for nearly a year weekly and use a lunchbox, but that's because I bring my own food cause it's also a waste of money to buy fast food everywhere - and it's bad for your health.
Yeah, it's is quite sad, especially the bottled water bit. I buy lunch at school everyday and everything is wrapped up in plastic / paper. I think we as individuals try to be concerned for the environment but fail to because there is no one pressuring us to really care. Luckily big companies seem to care in order to maintain a good image. Forgive me for being pessimistic but I doubt our own care for the environment will amount to much. There are millions of people on Earth, the only way to create change is to encourage entire communities to change, otherwise all you're really doing is satisfying your conscience without really helping the environment. o_0 long rant...
WE SHOULD ALL BOYCOTT FAST FOOD RESTAURANTS
AND RECYCLE
One thing that a friend of mine did that I thought was a great idea was she used pieces from the gears of a bike and made candle holders. They're actually really cool looking. Also, I take old clothes that no longer fit me (and aren't in good enough condition to pass on to someone else who might want to wear them) and make reusable gift bags. I just sew them into rectangular (or wine bottle sized) bags with a cinching string through the top and give friends gifts in them. Last week I bought a friend a soy candle and a bottle of lotion and made a gift bag for her... she plans to pass it on when she does some gift giving.
Yeah, it constantly amazes me living in a city how much *everything* people and businesses waste. Food, clothes, furniture, books, firewood, etc etc ad nauseum. That's not even getting into the packaging and energy mentioned by some of you above. :(
The one good thing about all the waste is that (for now at least, while the cheap fossil fuels allow the waste in the first place) one can live almost for free in the city, if one puts some time into dumpster diving and has a flexible life allowing you to stop and forage for stuff as the opportunities arise. At this point the only food I have to buy is meat, and I understand from other dumpster divers that if you have a car to drive around a bit it's even pretty easy to find lots of still-frozen discarded meat in grocery store dumpsters. But I don't want to drive, so I just settle for what I can easily snag on foot and bike.
Enjoy it and use it while it lasts...in a few years we'll all just shake our heads in amazement/dismay at how we wasted the short-term abundance of fossil fuels!
Scrub
Nice observation, but it's, unfortunately, utopia to think that this behaviour is going to change. Before everything is the business: many small enterepreneurs have their chance by opening their little restaurants or fastfood. So you can forget any political will to walk in the other direction. Also most people hate making their own food, it's tiring, the restaurant and/or fastfood is so practical...
It also makes the box/can industries happy. No way an environmental lobby would change that.
i have moved from the uk to the gambia, west africa 4 years ago. amongst other things, recycling here has really been an eye opener for me - or generally being more aware of the environment and how we use our natural resources.
i turn the water off when i clean my teeth supply is limited and water is precious not only here.
i have only 12 hours electricity on average every day you learn to plan your day and its actually enough.
as a nation, we are the ultimate recyclers everything has a second or even third use.
old shopping bags and juice cartons are used to grow plants in nurseries.
weavers make doormats out of old shopping bags.
plastic water bottles are collected by kids and sold to local juice producers.
cars and taxis are shared to keep the fare down and save fuel.
nobody drives an empty car you give lifts wherever you go.
washing water is used for watering plants.
old tin cans are melted down to make tools and cooking pots.
old paper is recycled to make new one i work for the charity.
old car tyres become property boundaries, plant pots and sandals.
old car panels become door and window panels.
old car lamps become low energy usage lighting.
old clothes become quilted blankets.
the list goes on and on.....
we find a use for everything until it truly dies.
in the west you call it poverty we are poor but we see it also as innovation and helping to preserve natural resources.
cheers
Wow, i wish i could say i did that much recycling. I really do. And i try. I recycle what i can. There is another problem though. Loads of recyclable items (like tetrapak cartons) can't be recycled because where i live there are no processing plants. We could save so much energy and materials but the british government don't think it is worth the money. It's disgraceful.
We need to be careful about depending on recycling to solve problems.
Obviously I applaud icecool's approach but a lot of that is personal recycling - actually using things designed for one purpose for another purpose. That is about as green as you can get.
In the West, however, recycling normally means using exactly what you normally would use and then putting the packaging in different coloured collection bins.
This is, in most cases, better than not doing so, but not as much as you might think.
Recycling many materials involves high energy cost (particularly some plastics) and the overall saving can be pretty small. It is far better to not use a plastic bag than it is to recycle one that you have used.
Recycling has it's place - I would not deny that for a second - but the only sustainable solution is to use less.
| Bikerman wrote: |
We need to be careful about depending on recycling to solve problems.
Obviously I applaud icecool's approach but a lot of that is personal recycling - actually using things designed for one purpose for another purpose. That is about as green as you can get.
In the West, however, recycling normally means using exactly what you normally would use and then putting the packaging in different coloured collection bins.
This is, in most cases, better than not doing so, but not as much as you might think.
Recycling many materials involves high energy cost (particularly some plastics) and the overall saving can be pretty small. It is far better to not use a plastic bag than it is to recycle one that you have used.
Recycling has it's place - I would not deny that for a second - but the only sustainable solution is to use less. |
I knew that recycling plastic used a lot of energy, but what about aluminum? Do you know if aluminum is easy to reuse? I've heard somewhere that a can is reused every 60 days or so. | Afaceinthematrix wrote: |
| I knew that recycling plastic used a lot of energy, but what about aluminum? Do you know if aluminum is easy to reuse? I've heard somewhere that a can is reused every 60 days or so. |
Aluminium (I'm British and we insist on the extra 'i') is a success story in recycling.
There are some facts on aluminium recycling here;
http://www.recycle-more.co.uk/nav/page712.aspx
