Wow! What an enlightening experience. Big things I noticed was how calloused I was to the amount of packaging that surrounded my daily life. In addition, once noticing this, I became more aware and cautious of the packaged items in my life. For example, I wear daily contact lenses. This means I throw away the plastic housing for these contacts everyday, a medium box that houses enough contacts once a month, and finally a larger box that houses enough contacts every 3 months. That’s a lot of waste for just one part of my life, not even including the disposal of actual contacts everyday.
Also it so happened that this past week I did a lot of shopping. Just in getting groceries or buying supplies for a camping and climbing trip. There is so much plastic packaging especially at Trader Joe’s on their fruits and vegetables. A cucumber is wrapped in cellophane, grape tomatoes in a plastic box, applies in a plastic bag. Furthermore, in marketing a product, there is so much excess packaging. It’s horrendous! For example, simply the user’s manual in a headlamp could be easily avoided by just printing it on the box instead of the additional waste.
Stepping away from this experience, I have tried to be more conscious of the brands and items I buy. Apples will taste the same where in a plastic bag, or if I pick them up and put them in my own reusable bag. I hope to continue to carry this mindset and encourage others.
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