Throughout the EcoChallenge and my current daily challenges in the “waste” and “community” categories, I have learned that I produce much more waste than I believed and that partaking in a sharing community is a lot easier and more sensible than I thought. One big example of something I have changed after doing these specific challenges is what I eat my food on. As I have talked about before, I have been cooking a lot of my own meals as one of my daily challenges to help myself get more organic meals in my everyday diet. But the majority of the time I eat these meals I use plastic utensils. Sometimes I might even share out my food on a paper or plastic plate. While I am doing good for the environment by getting in these organic meals, I am doing an equal amount of disservice by using plastic one-use utensils and plates. I wasn’t the only one doing this, my roommate also used a lot of plastic or paper one-use items to eat. What relationship did I really have with my environment if every time I tried to help it I turned a blind eye and hurt it just for my confidence. So I did what I do best, and took to online shopping. I bought a set of reusable dishes and utensils for me and my roommate to share so we could minimize our waste. While there is more time being spent washing and drying dishes, we are contributing to a sharing community by sharing these reusable items and cutting back on our waste
This made me think, why did I not think of buying reusable dishes when I started the challenge? But I did. When I ordered my pots and pans I also thought about ordering reusable plates and other kitchen appliances to eat my food on, but I opted out simply because I didn’t want to deal with the extra washing. This made me think back to one of our readings “Never Gonna Give You Up: How Plastic Seduced America”. The article talks about why plastic has become so prevalent in the last few decades - its convenience. Disposability and the constant use of one use plastics items was based on the idea that “someone else would carry out the trash” (Strasser). I knew that by buying paper or plastic plates I wouldn’t be the one to deal with the dishes if I just threw them away, and I am not the only one who has thought this way. This “single use tsunami’ (Strasser) mindset the article talks about is one of the reasons nearly half of the plastic that has been produced was manufactured after the year 2000.
When I think of the historical and cultural origins of organic food or disposability relating to my daily and onetime challenges I think more about where I am from and accessibility. Coming from such a large metropolitan area convenience begins to feel like necessity. Growing up in New York City there was alway somewhere close by to get exactly what you wanted, exactly when you wanted it. I saw how dirty the roads and streets were, I still do every time I go home, but for the most part I ignored it. I assumed that whatever change I believed I could make wouldn’t have any real impact on that size of a city. After reading about my city specifically in the article “The History of New York, Told Throughout its Trash” it made me want to not only continue my eco challenges but share the idea of taking part in them with other people in my city. Hearing that my city has “rarely had any days in its history without a waste problem” (Kaiser-Schatzlein) made me think why is that the case and why has it become so normalized. I hear people complain about how dirty New York City is but rarely do I ever see anyone make any real push to fix it. Before taking part in these challenges, I would have never thought to reduce my waste, or specifically eat more organic meals, or participate in a sharing community but now I have more incentive to do nothing less than that.
Eduardo Fontes 2/25/2025 4:07 PM