For this week’s blog post I will be building upon the topic of food waste from the Conceptualizing Waste prompt. When dealing with food waste I believe there is a lot that is my responsibility, largely because of the unique place food holds in human society which is quite different from other forms of waste. I think this for two reasons, one is that food is made of organic matter and two it’s an essential commodity that has to be produced. I think my responsibility for my food waste starts when I am buying food. It’s on me to think about am I really going to eat this? Cook this recipe? Am I getting sick of this food? In the past how often have I bought this and ended up never eating it. I know that I am someone who should not go into a store on an empty stomach because I buy way more food and often unhealthy products that I don’t want around. So right there cutting back on the volume of food is important in my responsibility with food. If I am in the dining hall being conscious of how much food/what food I put on my plate is important, if people only had crumbs/very little to scrape into the “food waste” bin the DC would not have much to throw out at all.
Prior to this class if you were to ask me when the waste I produce is no longer my responsibility I would have probably said when whoever picks up my food waste and takes it away is the moment it is no longer on me. Today I believe that line is a little blurry. I think that I will always be responsible for the making of the waste, but will say it’s when someone else who picks it up they are physically responsible for taking it wherever it goes, but definitely not for the production of it. I am not sure if it is an appropriate division of labor, but it is the only one that makes the most sense. I do not know what the work life of whoever picks it up. I imagine that it is someone who wakes up early (like the Pedal People) around 4:30/5:00 in the morning or works throughout the night. I imagine they see a plethora of oddities in their everyday trash pickup and items that should have been recycled. I would guess that they don’t feel respected by the community that they serve, that they could possibly feel looked down upon, especially if they are in a more affluent area such as where I live (Southborough MA) where their job can be seen as not respectable. Since I live in a boarding school our trash is put into a trash compactor which I believe goes straight to a dump/landfill afterwards. They might even just collect trash compactors from institutions like the one I live at, Fay is another boarding school right next to mine to which I imagine they also have a trash compactor that gets taken away for them. Possibly by the same sanitation workers?