Self-Intervention

Jacob Hazeltine, my results from self-intervention 1, Don’t Throw Anything Away

 

After a week of not throwing away anything, I realized how much waste I actually produced. The vast majority of my trash was food waste. Most of my fruits and vegetables had some form of packaging, and all of my poultry came packaged as well. While this made up some of my trash, the majority came from snack foods such as chips, crackers, and nuts. All these food items came with individually packaged portions, which adds dramatically to the amount of waste. This in turn caused me to reevaluate the food choices I make; most of the foods I eat that are unhealthy, produce far more waste than the healthier options. With fruit, such as bananas and oranges produce waste from their peels, while others such as apples and nectarines produce less waste, as you can eat the skin. All in all, after not throwing anything away for a week, I accumulated the following: 13 aluminum cans, 3 glass bottles, 5 envelopes of junk mail (with multiple sheets of paper in each), 1 Pringles can, 6 banana peels, 2 orange peels, 2 almond packages, 23 paper towels, 2 packages of chicken breast, 18 eggshells, 1 empty bread bag, 1 empty tortilla bag, 2 empty sleeves of Ritz crackers, and 5 Clorox wipes. As you can see, my trash is completely dominated by food items. Prepackaging in the food industry is very convenient, but it has very negative and adverse effects on our environment. Through this self intervention, I will try and purchase more fresh items at the grocery store, and stay away from processed foods that are often bad for my body, as well as the environment. A lot of my recyclable waste came from beverage containers. However, I received a large amount of junk mail. This has caused my to unsubscribe from all unimportant mailing lists, and notifying utility providers that I wished to go paperless for billing. While this exercise only lasted a week, I will be conscious of the waste I produce for the rest of my life, and try to minimize the amount of trash not only I, but the rest of my household, produces.

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