Leaf It Up to Me
I was given an assignment for one of my classes while on spring break to take a picture of every single thing that I throw out, every piece of immediate waste that I create. While I may have forgotten to take a few of the pictures, it has made me acutely aware of the trash that I am throwing out and all of the waste that a single person can create, let alone every single person throwing out tons of things every day... The second part of the assignment is to pick the most ridiculous thing we throw out and think of a way we could have avoided throwing it away. I'm not sure what the most egregious item is yet, but the majority of my trash does stem from food, including wrappers and bottles and the actual organic leftover food, so that's an interesting consideration. Trash may not seem that interesting but consider the landfills that pile up every year and the mounds of trash clogging our rivers and oceans and the fact that most of it takes a very long time to biodegrade and in the process is often leaving harmful pollutants in the surrounding environments. Anyways, I think it's an interesting little assignment that you may want to try for yourself to help you recognize how much waste you personally create and it might help you find ways to lessen that waste. In an uphill battle towards sustainability, every little action matters and changes of habits can make huge differences.
