DON'T BE SUCH A WASTE!

Hello from the other side!!! [..of midterms haha] I've actually thought about writing this post for a long, long time, but for some reason never got around to it. I think it's simply because there's so much stuff to write about that it just seems like a mammoth job. I'm gonna try to keep this short and concice though. This is a very important issue to me, and I've recently become a lot more troubled by it.. so here it goes!

I would add an image source... but I really cannot seem to find its source... so sorry!

In this day and age of mass purchasing and spending, we are wasting and throwing out more than ever! The average American makes ~4.5 pounds of garbage a day, and that's a statistic from 2007. I wouldn't be surprised if that number is much higher today.

Ever since going to university and eating university cafeteria food, I have been forced into many more situations where using reusable containers was not a choice. And as a person who hates wasting material, I feel absolutely terrible for using something for say half an hour and then throwing it out (ie. A coffee cup, or a paper plate). The campus where I go to school is home to another 12 thousand students. 12k students every day, using plastic cups, plastic utensils, paper/plastic containers, that's a huge amount of waste!

On a much bigger scale, think about how much garbage food courts make in a day just from one-use objects! And some times, you think you're putting your waste into recycling bins, however, nothing is being done. This is the case for Tim Horton's and Starbucks (at least, in Canada).

I encourage everyone to get aquainted with this topic, if they are not already. A great place to start is by watching "The Story of Stuff." To gain inspiration to start taking action, check out Mind Body Green to read the story of Lauren, an NYC girl who hasn't made any trash in two years.

Now, of course, you don't have to go to that extreme, because for many people, that kind of lifestyle is highly unattainable. But, if we all do little things collectively, we can provide a solution to a big problem. Instead of getting coffee in the traditional paper/plastic Starbucks cups, you can get your own reusable travel mug (and even get a discount!) Personally, I carry around my own set of utensils (fork and spoon) so I never have to use the plastic ones.

There's so many things we can do to put an end to this overspending on such unnecessary things that it seems silly to not do anything about it.



Thanks so much for reading,

--J