My trash
March 12th, 2007 by Mollie
My awareness about the amount of trash I produce started when I got to a point where I couldn’t stand throwing away the packaging my bread came in. I usually try to buy whole grain bread and default to whatever brand is on sale. However, many times this meant that I would throw away the plastic wrapper and the plastic bag the bread was wrapped in (occasionally the bag would be recyclable). We make sandwiches for our lunches so we go through a loaf of bread fairly quickly and I was left regularly throwing packaging away and hated it.
This led me to think about why in the world they had to package one loaf of bread twice and it also made me consider what else I was throwing away and what was happening to all of the trash I accumulate every week.
Let’s look at the packaging situation first. The conclusions that I came to about the reason behind double packaging were as follows: They need to keep the bread fresh and uncontaminated as it travels across the country on semi-trucks from the factories where the bread is made to the grocery stores where they will sit on the shelves. The bread that I buy is usually on sale which means that they are trying to get rid of it because there is a “fresh” shipment of bread to take its place. Even though my bread is on the older side the packaging with a lot of help from preservatives keeps my loaf soft and easily mold free. This made me think about the “footprint” of a loaf of bread which then becomes part of my “footprint” since I bought it. Are you following?
An unsophisticated and incomplete look at the footprint of a loaf of bread*:
- The electricity used to power the factory in which the bread is made.
- The toxic manufacturing of the plastic in which the bread is encased.
- The gas used and emissions created in transporting the bread.
- The electricity used to power the grocery store in which the bread is stored until bought.
- For some there is the gas used and emissions created by driving to the store.
- For some there is also the paper/plastic grocery sack which the bread will be placed in upon checking out.
- The throwing away of the twisty tie and two plastic wrappers.
- The gas used and emissions created by the garbage truck that comes to pick up the trash.
- Finally, it will either be taken to a landfill (it takes hundreds to thousands of years for plastic to decompose) or it will go to a recycling center where energy will be used to recycle it into something else.
*This doesn’t even touch upon the footprint of the ingredients used to make the bread.
This then made me think about all of the trash that I have created and accumulated of the span of my life so far and wondering how many landfills we have all filled up. We take out our trash once a week and never have to think about that bag(s) again. Most of us don’t have to be exposed to toxins, smells, and sight of landfills. The damage of our trash is left to affect those that can’t afford to live anywhere else.
I know this can be a little overwhelming. However, we need to take a realistic look at the impact of our actions and the affect that they have on other people and on the environment. This really isn’t as scary as it initially feels like it will be, but it definitely does take intentional actions to change the way our mind thinks and the way we approach life. A shift in our thinking needs to be made from one of convenience and carefree carelessness to one of respect for ourselves, each other, and the Earth. There is a beauty and ease to treading lightly on this earth and having respect for the shared world in which we live. The difficulty is in not everyone seeing that. I will write a post tomorrow that talks about some ways that I have begun to try to reduce my trash and some ways in which I have been re-thinking the way in which I consume.