From my personal collection of items I own, my books are not in a circular economy. I buy them and I keep them forever, I hardly share them, and I don’t give them away. One thing I do try and do is buy used books, so that I can participate in some sort of circular economy that way, and if I really trust a person like one of my best friends or like my mom I will let them be borrowed. I have never given a book to be kept that I bought for myself, I do buy books as presents and give those away often. I’m not sure what physical components would need to change about a book for me to be more circular in nature with them but I do know that a lot of social things would need to change. I don’t trust people with books because a lot of people in my life don’t respect them and treat them the same way I do. I often used to receive the books back damaged and I even had a person steal some from me. I would need to see a change in treatments of other people’s belongings and books as a whole from the people I am closest to.
Author Archives: Keaton Cummings-Chapman
Waste in the way of normal
To be honest I am not sure what exactly this blog post is referring to. I think however, the time that waste got in my way of “normal” was probably during covid. For me I got really depressed and didn’t leave the floor of my room unless it was to go to the bathroom and that was it. I felt like I had lost everything good and trash started to get really bad in my room. It wasn’t for a while that I had a friend come over and like help me feel any sense of normal that I realized the trash in my room was a problem. Now that I was feeling okish, I couldn’t get better because my room was a mess and it made me feel worse. It was a horrible cycle of me trying to clean my room, getting depressed and then giving up. It was just some random day when I did finally clean my entire room, and I don’t know what happened but a switch was hit or something because that really helped me get more normal.
Pollution Practice
Sometimes when I’m anxious I go for car drives. Especially when I’m home and I can drive for miles without seeing a single car and I can escape deep into the music and my own internal monologue. I feel as though people do talk about the pollution from cars as a whole yet not as a singular person. I know that if we got rid of cars, or cars that run on gasoline, functioning in Maine would be much harder. We don’t have a public transport system that runs like in Amherst with the buses. Going to work is a 20 minute drive, and going to Walmart is a 45-60 minute drive. I do believe that doing that would ruin everyday functionality, unless a safer available alternative was given to the general public.
disposable forks
The object I’m choosing is a plastic fork. The object to us is supposed to be a single use throw away plastic. Plastic forks aren’t meant to be washed and taken care of. They need to be used and tossed, that way people buy more forks (Capitalist ideal) and you don’t need to do dishes (Normal thinking). A plastic fork is of course made of plastic, typically in a white or black color, but sometimes like at a birthday party they might come in a fun rainbow variant, like a yellow or a blue. Plastic forks tend to have a connection to events like parties or get-togethers, because you have lots of people and may not have that many utensils. Instead you buy the plastic forks, people use them and then throw them out so you don’t have to wash tons of dishes, it’s there to save you manual labor. Most plastic forks probably end up in a landfill, or in the woods somewhere, sometimes in a park where a child’s birthday party was held. Wherever they go it isn’t to be used again.
Moore
The object I’ve chosen to talk about in this blog post is a Dunkin Donuts cup. I will talk about it in order of filth, commodity, and out of place. A Dunkin Donuts cup (DDC) is considered filthy or gross once you’re done with your drink. Also most people tend to find DDCs outside on the side of the road, which is considerably more filthy. Thinking of them as filthy ruins the ability to reuse the cup for any other drinks or anything else like even a planting cup. DDC as a commodity is interesting to think about. When you buy one you’re most likely buying the contents inside so the cup is just a vessel. Most people never just buy the cup and if you want one they probably give them to you for free. DDCs are always out of place because where do they even go?
Distanced from Waste
For this blog post I am choosing Target in the Hadley Mall. Target is a store that I hope everyone is familiar with, and they choose to distance themselves from waste as much as possible. Have you ever thought about all the packaging waste and the plastics that are thrown out with products all coming from one store. They don’t want you to think too hard about all the plastic sheetings, and the tear away strips and so much more that is on food, toys, and everything else that is packaged. They use paper bags which is a subtle way to nod towards being Green, yet they are covered in plastic in the rest of the store. Have you ever bought a Disney Doorables, the thing is filled with plastic. The box is made of tearaway cardboard that is covered in a thin sheet of plastic. Inside the cardboard there is a plastic tray filled with 7-9 plastic baggies, containing the toys. That is an obscene amount of waste for 7 tiny toys and yet no one thinks about it because Target has distanced themselves from waste.
Responsibility
I have chosen to talk about cardboard. A lot of the time it’s a hassle to keep around the broken down boxes, so my family and I often recycle them. My responsibility is to break down the box, so it fits better in the bin, and to make sure that I am putting the right waste products in the correct location. After they are in the bin or wherever they belong, I don’t think it is my responsibility anymore. It is on the laborers job to take it to its next location. I know at my old job at a consignment shop, I would break down the boxes and when the store was slow bring them out back and put them in the recycling dumpster. I often saw that other people weren’t breaking them down or anything else, just throwing in complete boxes which is a waste of space. I don’t know who took those specific dumpsters because we opened after they came, if I remember properly, but I think it was a big truck that would load it in the back and then go to other recycling dumpsters in town and take them. I know that we also had a regular trash dumpster too, so maybe for all I know the garbage people threw it all into the same truck!
Rescues from the Trash
I retrieved a red ribbon from a chocolate box in the recycling. I was going to throw something away in my common room with my mom and when I looked in I saw a red ribbon. I was initially just going to throw the red ribbon away because I often have a hard time keeping something from the trash, but this was from a recycling bin, and seemed really clean. I put it in my pocket and continued on with my day, until later that evening I gave it to my cat. My cat, Perron, loves ribbons and plays with toys all the time. When he saw it, it was instant excitement. I don’t have a picture because I don’t know where he has put it. I think back on it now and I’m glad I rescued the ribbon. It is going to bring lots of joy to Perron, and that in turn brings me joy. I know this object was thrown away because it was packaging, and no one keeps packaging anymore. I do know if it was mine from the get go, the ribbon would have been a no brainer. I don’t know if people should have treated it differently just because I would, doesn’t mean everyone should.
POOP
I personally don’t like poop at all, I don’t even like to go to the bathroom. I find bathrooms mostly uncomfortable unless it’s like a bath or shower. Public restrooms are like my nightmare, and when I worked at a diner I had to clean the bathroom and it was the worst. I think I come from a privileged place to not have had to clean bathrooms, most likely because I’m a cis male, most people haven’t had to make me clean bathrooms that often. I really don’t know what to say, I just hate bathrooms. I think my hate of bathrooms stems from my OCD. With that all said bathrooms gross me out, but talking about poop isn’t that bad.
Hoarding
I believe that I have more trinkets than the common college student. I love buying trinkets, and organizing them, and having them to look at and on display. I personally don’t think that people could make an argument about this being a hoarding situation. People could probably say that it is a waste of money, which I would strongly disagree with. I have these to make myself feel good. They bring me joy, and I don’t see a problem with it. They don’t over consume my space or time. I also have found ways to budget for them. I don’t overspend my money on them anymore, and when I did I recognized it as a problem and worked to fix it. I believe that these trinkets can produce waste. They often come in excessive packaging and even when you get them from a vintage shop, they proceed to wrap them in tons of tissue paper. I do wish that they were packaged differently than what they are. The production of waste from my collection is my least favorite thing about it. I don’t know how to fix the waste from the packaging but, my trinkets themselves are not waste.