Over one third of the world’s food is wasted (Polymouth, 2015, para 2). This is a clear misuse of resources and a demonstration of how food wastage has been taken for granted by the general population and leaders. Arizona State University (ASU), as the New American University model, has an obligation to lead by example in combating this problem. Up to date, ASU has not established an all-inclusive fully functioning food waste collecting scheme. A proposal for Green Bin Project at ASU has been put forth with an initial cost of about $105,000 (Brown, Levine & McLaren, 2015, pg 18). This project, however, does not cater for food waste generated in university housing and food service providing businesses around ASU campuses. This is one of the …show more content…
Although NAU has a well-established food waste management system, they still ignore food waste generated in the university residential apartments, and surrounding food businesses. ASU will have to do better on that end. The food waste problem is not bound to ASU only as mentioned earlier. Urban administrators have knowledge of the problem but choose to ignore it. They blame the delay in combating the problem on multiple factors including funds, infrastructure and public response. In fact, in some places, food waste collection projects were not given a chance at all, not even a project prototype has been implemented. In a document sent from Plymouth City Council to Penny in March they stated that: ‘the city was not ideally suited for food waste collection in many areas because of: terraced houses, lots of hills, high winds and seagulls (making small food waste containers subject to over-turning and spillage), a large number of houses with multiple occupancy, high-rise flats, areas of deprivation (public less inclined to partake), high transient population eg students (lower participation and more mistakes).’ … Yet Torquay and Paignton are able to offer their residents this service – towns with a huge seagull population and steep …show more content…
The Plymouth City Council is making the same mistake that ASU and many other institutions make: concluding less interest of participation from their general public. ASU’s general public is the student body. If the food waste project initiated is to be successful, the student body must be fully involved. Waste management courses could be offered, motivational rewards, various food waste collection competitions, and innovation challenges could be employed in order to boost students’ interest in the course. With majority students on board, the ASU Green Bins program stands a chance of
As Americans, we waste more food than many countries even consume. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, “The average American trashes 10 times as much food as a consumer in South east Asia” (Hsu). That is about equivalent to eating 10 meals to a consumer in South East Asia’s one meal. We throw away our left over food just because we are done ea...
In his essay, “On Dumpster Diving”, Lars Eighner describes his three years homeless with his dog Lizbeth, surviving off stuff he scavenged from dumpsters. In it he describes his methods for finding edible food and what he looks for to make sure the food is safe to consume and unspoiled. One of the topics he brings up is how a lot of what he finds is from dumpsters near college campuses due to how careless and wasteful he perceives college students to be with their food and other belongings. While some of his criticisms are valid towards a small portion of college students, it is unfair to ascribe these behaviors to all students in general. A majority would agree with his criticisms and be amazed to learn how much is wasted.
More than $31 billion worth of food is wasted every year in Canada and when energy, water and other resource costs are factored in the true cost could be up to as much as $107 Billion each year according to a report published by Value Chain Management International, a consulting firm, which suggests that millions of kilograms of food is wasted every year in Canadian homes, restarants, & grocery stores. This finding shows a 15 % increase from their findings four years ago when the cost was $27 Billion,in 2010. They also go on to say that this is 2% of Canada s GDP and larger than the total economic output of the poorest 29 countries on the planet.
According to Roni Neff, Marie Spiker, and Patricia Truant, up to 40% of all food produced in America is thrown away (Neff, Spiker, & Truant, 2015, p.2). This wasted food is worth hundreds of billions of dollars that is lost each year in the United States alone, and creates many threats to our country. Food waste is an important and widespread issue in the United States because most of the food thrown away is perfectly fine, it could be used to feed the hungry, and the waste hurts the environment.
Of course, the most important aspect of recycling in the university is awareness and with students who are currently seriously considering the way they manage their solid waste, the campaign and program becomes even more successful. To do this, the university has also joined the national FIU Recyclemania for two years now and had placed exceptionally well (FIU, 2011). It is very important in any environmental effort that the stakeholders are made aware of the benefits of the efforts so that the program earns propriety and becomes a culture instead of just an obligation.
Currently, the Steamboat Springs campus is not doing a very productive job at encouraging appropriate sustainability thoughts or behavior concerning the Real Food Challenge. The prevailing system in place promotes students and staff not questioning what Sodexo has given to us when it comes to dining hall and cafe options by setting low standards and maintaining them. This is enabled by the lack of architecture, signage or other communication channels that would encourage and motivate the CMC community to make the shift regarding real food options.
The majority of people waste food on a daily basis. In fact, in the U.S. alone there is an estimate that over half of the food produced goes uneaten; meanwhile there are people who are in need of food, and it ultimately goes to waste (Dockterman). For example, in his essay, “On Dumpster Diving,” author Lars Eighner writes about his experiences of dumpster diving with his pet dog, during his years of homelessness. According to Eighner, much of the food and materials he came across in the dumpsters were in usable shape, and many items were new. Clearly there needs to be a change in American food waste, in current and, hopefully not so much in, future generations.
In 2011, the Environmental Protection Agency estimated that Americans generated 250 million tons of municipal solid waste, MSW1, of which only 87 million tons were recycled or composted (“Municipal Solid Waste”, 1). This value, however, does not represent the total amount waste generated by the United States since MSW only accounts for 2 percent of total waste generated. As more trash is generated, space to construct more landfills becomes an issue. In order to reduce the amount of solid waste produced, the federal government must implement and enforce a new waste disposal method that emphasizes composting food waste.
The scary reality is that, according to the book American Wasteland: How America Throws Away Nearly Half of Its Food (and What We Can Do About It), “landfilling of food is on the rise – the rate doubled from 1980 to 2007” (Bloom 15). This reality leads to a number of negative consequences such as an increase in methane production and pollution. “Most food waste, approximately 33 million tons, is disposed in landfills, costing $750 million and accounting for 25% of U.S methane emissions” (Uga.edu).
Strategies we can use to save money and reduce food waste can help prevent hunger in the world. What people don’t realize is how much food they are wasting when they allow it to spoil or throw away the extra food from their plates. In the US alone 30-40% of food is wasted, which means each person wastes approximately 20 pounds of food per month. With just 15% of the food that is wasted we could feed quite a bit more than 25 million Americans every year. Did you know that one in six families goes without knowing if they will have meal on the table each day?
I have chosen the topic of food waste and the impact on the environment. I will discuss the ridiculous amount of food that is wasted each year and the staggering amount of waste that could be avoided just by planning ahead, and purchasing from farmer’s markets and avoiding the main stream supermarkets who set such high standards on the aesthetic of produce that tonnes are wasted for no reason other then shape.
Food waste is the biggest space consumer in our landfills, which may seem surprising, but shouldn’t be based on the amount of food that is consumed on a daily basis and the large proportion of food that is wasted. The main problem with the amount of food waste in landfills, is that it produces methane as it decomposes which is detrimental to the atmosphere as a whole, and can have lasting effects. The buildup of all the methane produced results in huge amounts of global warming potential which is extremely detrimental to our environment. Also, because of the fact that so many resources are used in order to grow certain foods, they are all being put to waste when the food that used these resources goes directly to landfills. This applies to water usage, soil richness, and petroleum usage. As far as costs go, food waste affects the economy by about $750 billion a year, which is a massive amount of money that could be going elsewhere. Because we are losing so much money, it is clear that there is a great need for change in the food system, especially in the United
Policy is needed to regulate which course of action should be taken and how it should be implemented. Because of this, many plans and policies revolving around the management of solid waste have been put in place. Sometimes however, a particular policy can have its shortfalls, potentially resulting in its negative aspects outweighing the positive ones. According to the Conference Board of Canada Report, “Canadians dispose of more municipal solid waste per capita than any other country” (2013). Solid waste management in particular, involves many aspects, ranging from packaging waste, food waste, etc. (White & Franke 1999), hence, the following analysis revolves around household and commercial waste – referred to as Municipal Solid Waste (White & Franke. 1999) – in the Greater Vancouver Regional District. Municipal waste is a major health and environmental concern as it contributes to numerous problems like habitat destruction, surface groundwater pollution, and other forms of air, soil, and water contamination. Waste disposal methods like incineration create toxic substances, and landfills emit methane, which contributes to global warming. According to the Zero Waste Objective Report, “The impact of climate change and the increasing awareness of the role of “waste” and “wasting” in the production of greenhouse gas emissions is a constant environmental pressure… (2009). This leads to an increasing limitation of government to prevent and control the volume and toxicity of products in the waste stream and a growing need to shift responsibility to the product manufacturer.
People should know the negative impact throwing away a water bottle or newspaper, purchasing meat from the grocery store or consuming gasoline has on the environment, and many do not. By informing society about how their decisions affect the environment, we can help save our planet and change our attitude toward the land we live on, the water we drink and the air we breathe” and truly show respect for the stuff that we depend on. The United States produces “about 8.25 billion tons of solid waste each year” (Russell 1). People do not realize the impact they have on our planet and the environment. When people throw anything in the trashcan, they are contributing to the destruction of our planet.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (2008), an American produces 250 million tons of garbage per year (para.2). There are different circumstances that are based on the society, environmental conditions, occupation and size of each of the different families. As Richmond (2010) stated, if no administration organizations has the responsibility or resources to concentrate their efforts on the waste disposal, then the responsibility to do that is on the nongovernmental organizations and ordinary people (para.... ... middle of paper ... ...