Ava Miel

This week, I chose to do the Personal Waste Audit and collect my non-recyclable and compostable waste in order to raise my awareness about the kinds and amount of waste that I produce. I collected approximately half a bag of trash and found that the type of plastic waste I produce the most is from bulk items rather than individually packaged ones. I am often guilty of buying individually packaged items for convenience, but grocery items that I bought this week such as cheese, bagels, and tangerines all came in plastic packaging. I never put as much consideration into the packaging of items that weren’t individually wrapped, since it seemed like the waste produced from these products would be lesser. A big challenge of this action was not throwing everything away right away because it felt like it was cluttering up my space. Keeping it with me made me feel a sense of disgust, but by reflecting on that disgusted feeling I realized that the origin of it was actually a sense of guilt because I was subconsciously aware that if the trash was not clean enough to be in my home, that it was harming the environment as well. The Systems Thinking Iceberg Model from Session 1 of our textbook definitely came into play during my experience for this project. I realized that I was using a lot of plastic, which led to me realizing that I use more plastic when I do not pay attention to the packaging of bulk items and when I am buying for convenience. This led me to understand that I was not paying attention to the packaging of bulk items because I was making the assumption that they left a smaller footprint and that I was buying for convenience to save time. However, because of this activity I now realize that bulk foods can still leave a large plastic footprint and that the convenience of plastic packaging is not worth the harm that it inflicts on the planet and the disgust that comes from when the plastic must be disposed of. The rewarding thing about this experience was gaining more awareness and control over what I choose to purchase. For produce, instead of prepackaged tangerines, I will bring my own bags and pick out the produce that is not prepackaged. I can also substitute some of the foods I bought, like pre-made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, for the raw ingredients and make bulk batches at home. Also, for some drink products like apple juice, I can find these products in glass or cardboard containers. For glass containers especially I can reuse the containers for my own homemade goods.