November 19, 2008 at 11:59 am (Food, LC, Social Responsibility, Waste Reduction & Recycling)
Think about how much food you eat in a day. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and those snacks in between. Now think about all of the food that you didn’t eat; the leftovers from ballooning restaurant portions or the extras in the fridge from dinner Friday night. Next time you sit down to eat, take a hard look at your plate and try to think about what you really plan on eating. Do you have time to eat everything you’ve served yourself in a 15-minute lunch break? Should you really be eating a salad that size?
Strive to throw nothing away from your plate. As cliché and silly as it sounds, there are starving people in this world. Children in particular have fallen victim to the hunger that looms over some of the most impoverished continents. Basic foods have become a precious and finite commodity in our world. It is disheartening to know that children go to school every day without breakfast and growling stomachs and are expected to still do their best.
No, you cannot airmail your leftovers to Africa or India to feed the hungry there, but taking a minute to think about what is on your plate before you start eating is a great step towards considering the waste that occurs all over our planet every second of the day. Are you really going to eat all of that?
- Vanessa
Editor’s Note: This post is one in a series published by students in the Sustainability Learning Community at KU. Additional posts from this series can be found under “LC” on the Categories list.
5 Comments
November 19, 2008 at 11:04 am (LC, Waste Reduction & Recycling)
The University of Kansas does not have an adequate glass recycling program. It is just as important to recycle glass products as it is to recycle paper, aluminum and plastic products. Think about all those bear bottles that are just thrown away in the trash. Glass is a product that can be recycled completely back to its original self. Unlike glass, plastics are only downgraded, which is not as efficient as glass recycling. Manufacturers are using cullet (broken glass) to supplement raw materials. Using cullet saves money and helps the environment. Cullet costs less than raw materials and prolongs furnace life wince it melts at a lower temperature. Cullet also demands less energy from power sources like electricity, natural gas and coal. Less energy used means reduced emissions of nitrogen oxide and carbon dioxide, both are green house gasses (http://www.solidwastedistrict.com/stats/glass.html).
Though it is vital to recycle plastics, they will never be recycled back to its original self. This process is called downgrading. Most recycled plastics are recycled into non-recyclable secondary products. Since most plastic reprocessing leads to secondary products that are not themselves recycled, this material is only temporarily diverted from landfills. Our choice is limited to recycling or wasting. Source reduction is preferable for many types of plastic and isn’t difficult. Opportunities include using refillable containers like those indestructible Nalgene water bottles. Also to buy in bulk from stores like Costco and Sam’s club. It’s also important to buy things that don’t need much packaging, and buying things in recyclable and recycled packages (http://www.ecologycenter.org/ptf/misconceptions.html).
- Rion
Editor’s Note: This post is one in a series published by students in the Sustainability Learning Community at KU. Additional posts from this series can be found under “LC” on the Categories list.
2 Comments
November 19, 2008 at 10:59 am (LC, Waste Reduction & Recycling)
The first time I went to a recycling center, I was amazed. It was the Wal-Mart recycling center in Lawrence and I seriously thought it was the coolest thing ever. My sister and I had so much fun separating all of the recyclables. But the thing I have come to realize is that most people hate taking the time to recycle so much, that they simply just don’t do it. Recycling is important because we literally have no space for waste according to recycling guide.org. We need to make recycling more accessible to everyone, especially to college students. Most of my friends that don’t recycle say it’s because they either don’t see a recycling bin close by when they need it, or that it gets too confusing to figure out which bottle or paper goes in what bin. Treehugger.com says that 1 in 6 people don’t recycle because it’s not available in their area. We need to make it more available to everyone, starting with the University of Kansas campus. I see recycling bins in my dorm and that’s about it. There need to be bins in all of the buildings on every floor and outside on the sidewalks. They should be just as frequent on campus as trash cans are. The bins also need to clearly say what is supposed to be put in them. I believe students on campus would use these recycling bins if they were easier to find and to use.
- Elizabeth
Editor’s Note: This post is one in a series published by students in the Sustainability Learning Community at KU. Additional posts from this series can be found under “LC” on the Categories list.
3 Comments
November 19, 2008 at 10:56 am (Green Building, LC, Sustainable Solutions, Waste Reduction & Recycling, Water)
I am a huge proponent of xeriscaping. Many people don’t know what it is, so I’ll define it as Webster does: xeriscape is defined as a landscaping method developed especially for arid and semiarid climates that utilizes water-conserving techniques (as the use of drought-tolerant plants, mulch, and efficient irrigation). Basically, its returning the environment in your front lawn to what the environment would have been like before your house was there. I have been in the landscaping business for about four years, and have had enough experience to completely verify all of these statements. The basis of the argument for the use of xeriscape is that “turf” lawns require fertilizer, extra irrigation, and gas extensive maintenance. With the use of native plants, it eliminates the need for fertilizer and irrigation, and drastically reduces the need for maintenance. In southern Florida, there was a law put into place that made a lenient form of xeriscape mandatory. They found that this simple form of xeriscape reduced the water use for irrigation by half. The other benefits, of course, being less water pollution due to the negated need for fertilizer. The air will also be much cleaner, due not only to reduced gas consumption, but also because bushes and trees produce much more oxygen than turf grass. Here in Lawrence, I see many houses that run irrigation systems every day. They are being run to support these really thirsty lawns of fescue grass that, in reality, should not be used as a turf grass in any other place than Seattle. The use of xeriscaping in Lawrence could improve the water and fertilizer consumption greatly. In short, xeriscaping will provide a better local ecosystem and will be more naturally beautiful.
- Dan
Editor’s Note: This post is one in a series published by students in the Sustainability Learning Community at KU. Additional posts from this series can be found under “LC” on the Categories list.
1 Comment
November 19, 2008 at 10:16 am (Food, LC, Waste Reduction & Recycling)
With all the talk about sustainability people think that means on a giant global scale. So with this thinking the masses don’t think they can make a dent and thus don’t try. But there is a simple thing you can do to help out the environment and save money on fertilizer. It is called composting and it is very easy to do. All you need is an open space outside in which to dump your organic waste like food, or any other natural item. I grew up on a farm and was exposed to many different fertilizers both natural and processed. I had noticed that the plants with the compost did as well if not better than the plants with store bought fertilizer. This makes the point that while store bought brand fertilizer is more convenient it is less economically sound than composting your old food, and it works just as well.
- Dominic
Editor’s Note: This post is one in a series published by students in the Sustainability Learning Community at KU. Additional posts from this series can be found under “LC” on the Categories list.
2 Comments
