Author: Chance

Plastic Bottles

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Every year Americans use approximately 50 billion plastic water bottles. A product that is well known to be harmful to the environment as well as humans. I propose that we replace plastic bottles/liquid containers with glass ones or replace the large majority of them. This would include energy drinks, all alcoholic beverages, milks, juices, etc. Any drink that is purchased in a store and is often packaged in a plastic bottle.. Glass can be recycled indefinitely and does not release any toxic chemicals or micro-pieces that plastic does. The arguments made for glass being harmful for the environment are the minerals required to make it along with the co2 emissions it produces in production as well as shipping. Already glass bottles are up to 30% made from recycled glass, if we are able to recycle all glass bottlesWith having a designated bin separate from other recyclables there could be a collection system that collects them and brings them to places to be reshaped and sent out for selling once again. If businesses, especially smaller businesses had a system where you could return bottles once you’re done (Allandale Farm in Boston, MA has this system for some products) this would bypass the outside requirements for collection for some establishments.

Plastic bottles are profitable with it costing between 15 and 65 cents to make and are sold with them costing typically around 1.50 – 2.00 USD. Glass on the other hand is more expensive, part of the reason why plastic is used much more often than glass, however the current usage of plastic bottles is not sustainable given that the vast majority are not recycled, they don’t go away, and are very harmful to the planet. Another reason glass is thought to not be as good as plastic is that it breaks easily, but considering the impacts it has on people and the environment I think it is not such a huge ask for people to just be more careful not to break them. 

So in short; replace plastic bottles with glass ones, have glass bottle collection systems so none gets wasted, be able to return used ones to stores, and businesses need to be ok with not making a bigger profit margin.

Glass

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Glass kombucha bottles are an item that I often find myself throwing into the recycling bin. For the purpose of this assignment I’ll be talking about glass in general. Glass is surprisingly easy material to produce. There are several different materials used to make it, but it is mostly made from glass sand, calcium carbonate, and sodium carbonate. Once the materials are mixed together they are heated at 3,090 degrees after it is molten glass. Then the glass is molded into its desired shape. The process is obviously more complicated than that, but it does follow mixing, melting, and molding. Glass has been around for thousands of years and is a very environmentally friendly material. It doesn’t release any toxic chemicals over time like plastic. Once it is recycled the process is actually quite similar to producing it, it is just melted and mixed in with other glass to make more products. In fact about ⅓ of all glass products are made from glass that has already been recycled. The downsides are that a glass furnace can not be turned off over its 15 – 18 year lifespan of use and does produce some amount of carbon dioxide. That is the negative environmental impact of glass. From what I can tell I think we should have nearly enough glass already made so that we don’t have to keep making more of it. If every single glass item was sent back to places that could remold it the usage would/is indefinite never really an expiration date. Glass by nature is not and can not be a single use item, which I believe is a reason for it being so sustainable. Even if glass is colored it is still 100% recyclable. On average around 13 million jars made of glass are recycled and 30 days for a glass to go from recycling bin to shelved product. 

 

  • Sources

https://www.aaa-glass.com/how-to-make-glass/

https://www.agc-glass.eu/en/sustainability/environmental-achievements/environmental-impact#:~:text=The%20major%20environmental%20impact%20of,atmospheric%20emissions%20from%20melting%20activities&text=The%20combustion%20of%20natural%20gas,during%20the%20production%20of%20glass.

https://www.eastlongmeadowma.gov/778/What-happens-to#:~:text=Glass%20bottles%20and%20jars%20are,repeatedly%20without%20losing%20their%20quality.

 

Cotton Tote Bags

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Cotton tote bags (tote bags in general) have picked up major popularity in recent years due to the growing understanding of how bad plastic bags are for the environment. Companies market totes as the environmentally friendly alternative because they are reusable and not made of plastic. It is very much “plastic bad” “other materials good”, not taking into account that reusable bags can have major environmental impacts that are just not as obvious to the public. It’s one of the primary effects of this newfound attack on plastic not being an acceptable material, but ignoring that other commonly used materials such as cotton can be detrimental to the planet as well. The tote bag has become one of the most common forms of ‘corporate environmentalism’ (firm-level efforts to reduce pollution and resource use along with protecting natural habitats). The reason why cotton tote bags are so harmful is because of how much resources are needed for cotton to grow. Cotton is known to use absurd amounts of water for it to grow, it being up there for the most water consuming crop between what it needs to grow and the processing process to turn it into textile products. Cotton farming is the primary reason for which the Aral Sea dried up, cotton farms surrounded it and quickly drained most of the water over the latter half of 20th century and early 21st century. Even though plastic bags are by no way good for the environment a cotton tote bag needs to be used around 20,000 times or for 54 years daily for it to totally offset the resources needed for its production. I can confidently say that 99%+ of tote bags are not going to be used for that long that frequently. After they are used you can not even recycle them because the logos, writing, or prints on them are most often PVC-based and those are incredibly hard to break down and are not recyclable. The only way to recycle them is to cut out the prints, but that accounts for 10 – 15% of fabric on average. Which doesn’t sound like a lot, but adds over time, however still better than not being able to recycle at all. People will most likely not take the time to take this measure. Aside from the water needed to make them, a large part of the reason why cotton tote bags are having such a negative impact is because they are produced in copious amounts. Companies will often give them out for free or they will be very cheap, depending on where you get them. This semesterI have been given three reusable bags (although one non-cotton bag). 

One of my families cotton tote bags

  • Sources

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/24/style/cotton-totes-climate-crisis.html

https://brightly.eco/blog/cotton-tote-bag-environmental-impact

https://www.worldwildlife.org/industries/cotton

 

Face Masks

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Face masks are an object that has existed since the 1920s, used primarily by those in medical professions. As we all know the use of surgical and Kn95 masks has exploded due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since Covid the disposable market has exploded to a 38.9 billion dollar business in 2021. With it everyone is using them and have since entered the public mind as a common disposable item along with wrappers, paper, packaging, etc. Face masks are mostly made of cotton and polymers (which contain plastic). Both of these materials we are very used to throwing away. Globally a total of 129 billion are used every month and 3.4 billion are thrown away daily. A large part of the reason why we think of them as disposable is because that is what we have been told, to only use them a certain amount of times and they lose their effectiveness. In our minds masks are associated with protecting ourselves and others from COVID, it’s quite different from many other disposable products in the way it’s about a public health concern rather than convenience. In reality these masks went from having an association with medical professionals to being a symbol of one of the worst pandemics in history and one of the most important events of the 21st century. The connection is instant between the two. It is now a very common occurrence for people to see face masks littering parking lots as a plastic bag or plastic water bottle would. At Hampshire I would say I see them more often than any other type of waste littered. They are now sharing the same fate as many other waste items, they are being found in the ocean and are contributing to micro-plastic pollution. I doubt the widespread use of masks will be going down in coming years, due to the issue of COVID, but also because of how effective they’ve proven to be against airborne disease. 

Merrill Dumpsters

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The Merrill dumpsters are going to be the focus of my blog post today. I am not exactly sure how these operate, but I would guess they are the final destination for all the waste produced from the Merrill common rooms/kitchens, the smaller trash/recycling cans outside in the front, waste from the bathrooms, and students rooms. Definitely a core reason my dorm stays as clean as it is. Their location I believe is very specific for quick disposal and keeping it hidden. There are two ways for one to see the trash and recycling dumpsters, one is that they are doing laundry in the basement or if they walk to the back of Merril, which for the most part is very unlikely unless your maintenance. This location I feel is very much designed to be kept out of sight and out of mind, they are also surrounded on three sides by a wooden and metal fence, which further cements the idea of wanting them to be hidden from people. In addition there is a road that goes right up to it, designed for efficient disposal. I am not sure whether that road was always there for taking our waste away, but it does go right up to it, giving the impression that it was made for that. In addition to it being out of sight of the majority of the Hampshire population it is the closest they can have it to the woods, a place that we don’t consider to be our living space. We don’t bat an eye with them being in such a secluded location, but it would be much different if we put them in front of Merrill by the entrance where the smaller trash and recycling are currently. Even if it did not smell, people would still be questioning why it is placed there. However I do believe the current placement of the dumpsters is symbolic of what we as a society view waste as. Being pushed to the sidelines and further being hidden, kept just far enough away from our living space, but not really that far. Kind of like how there are dumps not far outside of towns/cities and most people would not know. Either because it’s blocked by barriers like trees or it looks like a hill covered in grass (I can think of several in Massachusetts that I didn’t know were dumps). 

The Merril Kitchen

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The Merrill kitchen has a host of waste removal structures, some obvious and some not so obvious. The most waste oriented structure is the black trash can next to the kitchen island and the recycling can by the fire extinguisher. Next is the numerous cleaning supplies that one would normally expect to find in a kitchen, dishwashing soap, paper towels, wipes, a cloth rag hung on one of the ovens, and hand sanitizer and tissue on the window sills. Which I would guess is a preventative measure for Covid/germs, not necessarily physical waste you can see with your eyes. The island houses the oven top which has removable burners to clean underneath and the fan/hood above primary purpose is to suck heat and/or smoke out of the air. Although not conventionally thought of as a cleaning mechanism it operates much in the same way as an air purifier does. Next to the two wall ovens there is a sign on the wall reading “Keeping Your Community Kitchen Clean” and “Make a mess? Clean the mess!” As well as other guidelines that people should be following here. This is notable because people have not been listening to any of the messages on it. The sink has several unwashed pots, silverware, and plates in it. Along with things clearly not being put away with care, instead being left out for somebody else to deal with. On another counter by the entry door people have been piling stuff that seems to be forgotten about. The last time I was using this kitchen was during the beginning of the semester and the fridge then seemed to be a place where food was stored to be eaten. Currently both the freezer and fridge are not a place that seems to be appealing to leave food. The fridge and freezer both stink and the fridge has literal mold growing in it. Both smell more like compost than what they’re supposed to smell like, which is nothing. I think that the leaving of food to the point of rot and willingness to leave the counters littered with cooking objects is because if other people do it then it is ok to do the same, the broken window theory. 

 

Food waste responsibility

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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? 

Food waste?

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When I think of the numerous items that I use on a daily basis that could be considered waste, the one that stands out to me is food. Mary Douglas’s conception of dirt helps us to understand food to be waste because it is a prime example of matter out of place. In our culture food has specific times when it is “clean” and when it is “dirty”. I think the term farm to table describes the time period where food is in the clean phase of its life. Even though most of our food comes from a place that should be considered dirty being literally the dirt/soil, it is still acceptable in society because it is in place. Once we are done with food on our plate, there are multiple ways for it to reach the dirty status. Being thrown in the trash, scraped into the sink, wiped off with a paper towel, or even falling on the floor, all makes it dirty in our minds. However if that food were to stay on our plates we would keep on nibbling on it and think of it as clean. In the trash it’s often only touching other food items, which moments before was fine to eat, but only due to its different location means it’s no longer good. In the dining commons here at Hampshire, I often look in the “food waste” can and think of how in my mind I know it’s just a bunch of uneaten food, but it evokes a feeling of disgust. I know that’s just my society’s opinions speaking through me. For example I would never think to eat the food in the takeout containers from the DC that’s been left out overnight, even though hours before I was eating the food which was clean to me. 

Leftovers are interesting because it’s just saving what would be food scraps from a meal. My grandmother is someone who will save any food item as long as it’s still good. A half eaten apple that’s turning brown “still good”, orange juice left in a glass “still good”, and something with a little mold on it just cut off the piece with it and it’s “still good”. Most of these situations I and many others would probably throw away or dump out the food/drink, and even though my grandmother lives in the same culture as I do she grew up in a different one. Her mother, my great grandmother, was a child of the Great Depression and passed the thinking of waste nothing down to her children. Even though we technically live in the same culture, it is interesting to see how it changes over time and to see that change through our view based on what waste is. 

Plastic

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My object that I retrieved from the trash is a plastic fork, I got it from FPH in classroom 107. The experience was quite odd at first if I’m being honest. I was on a run and after that I decided to start dumpster diving. I stopped at every one I saw. I was finding that it was the same objects being thrown away in most of the trash cans. A lot of soda cans, plastic cups, to go containers and paper plates from the dining hall, and papers. It felt weird holding my phone flashlight peering into dumpsters, it just isn’t something that you’d normally see someone do. However we are at Hampshire so I don’t think people will think it’s that abnormal. I got into it and thought I’d find more interesting discarded objects inside and even though a plastic fork is not all that interesting it is an object I think is useful. 

I believe there are many reasons why this particular object is regarded as waste in our culture. In “A Brief History of a Tomato” capitalism is the dominant theme/point. In it the “freegans” live off of the leftovers of capitalism’s endless mass production of material objects and American societies’ wasteful food practices. I would say capitalism is why this fork was thrown away. It’s made of plastic, which in my opinion is the material that is most associated with being trash. Not to say that other materials can’t be thrown away, but plastic is more often used than others for one time use things like packaging (on just about anything), grocery bags, trash bags, drink bottles, straws, etc. It is also used for more long term use items as well, but it is cheap to produce and extremely versatile so it’s not a wonder why humans use it so much. 

More specifically on plastic forks, they’re given out in plentiful amounts here at Hampshire and elsewhere so I understand why people would throw them away if they know next time they need one a new one will be there. I keep a couple in my room and will use them when I bring meals back. 



Shit

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Personally I never thought much about shit. Like most people, I thought it was mostly just something that everyone does and that it was a bit unsanitary. However, I was always curious about how humans were able to turn the food we eat into something so unrecognizable and smelly. I have also wondered why we did not use human excrement as a fertilizer on a mass scale which I got my answer to in Gerling’s reading. 

When I read Gerling’s excerpt from Food, Culture, & Society I immediately thought of two scenes from the movie The Help. In one scene, the white employer of a black housekeeper argues that “colored” help should use a separate bathroom outside of the house because “they carry different diseases than we do” and it’s unsanitary (The Help). In a subsequent scene, the same housekeeper uses the employer’s bathroom instead of the outside one, and the employer, in a fit of rage, fires the housekeeper on the spot.This is ironic because her help is allowed to take care of their children, cook for them (eating food touched by their hands), and clean her house. Yet shitting in their bathroom was deemed unsanitary? I guess this was just a step too far, given feces I would say is considered the most unsanitary bodily function. I know this is a movie and not real life, but I still find it interesting that they decided to keep this in the final cut of the movie, even if discriminatory practices like this did not happen it still stands out. This then leads me to think segregated bathrooms in the era of Jim Crow laws where blacks and whites could not share the same bathroom, which I thought, up until recently, was just because everything was separated by race, but I am now realizing the introduction of the indoor toilet and plumbing have more significant historical roots.