During the month of February, I participated in the social media challenge #FuturisticFebruary.  For the entire month, I collected all of the trash that I created, including recyclables, in order to visualize the amount of waste that I generally produce in a single month.  The idea of the challenge is to save all of your trash created during the month without changing your behaviors. Then, after the challenge is over, you can discover changes to make in your life to minimize your amount of future trash.  This challenge, created by Carly Bergman on Instagram, is very eye-opening, and I highly recommend looking up her Instagram page and the challenge.

I began the month with the belief that I was a conscious consumer who created minimal waste, so I wasn’t expecting to accumulate much trash throughout the challenge.  However, very quickly into the first week or two, I began to realize that my previous assumption was incorrect. By the end of the month, I filled one large Chipotle bag with trash, which, although below average for many Americans or college students, was very frustrating for me.  It was also very humbling because I held the belief that I was creating little to no trash on a normal basis, and seeing how much waste I collected inspired me to try to minimize my trash creation further.

I discovered that the majority of my trash comes from food and its packaging, ranging from Einstein Bros. Bagels wrappers to plastic hummus containers to receipts.  Sadly, a lot of my food comes from take-out restaurants or fast food chains because of my busy college-student schedule, which translates to a lot of waste from meals.  Although I try to avoid plastic packaging as much as possible, trash is trash–whether it is paper, metal, or plastic. It all has an impact.

This challenge also has an impact–although it is a much more positive one.  After analyzing my trash and the behaviors that accompany it, I discovered many ways to limit my waste in the future.  For example, for the past few weeks, I have been trying to not eat out as often, or at least eat in a restaurant to eliminate packaging.  Although I cannot control the upstream waste of my eating habits (such as food growth needs and shipping), I can recognize the impact of upstream waste and attempt to lower my impact.  

As we learned in class, waste is a product of our linear economy.  I should not create waste from my eating habits, yet in today’s society, the majority of my food is shipped to Charleston from across the globe.  A product of not knowing where my food is sourced from is not knowing who grows my food, meaning that my consumption could (and most likely does) harm minority populations that labor in massive agricultural fields.  These fields, utilized for the growing of a single crop, also harm the environment through deforestation and spraying fertilizers and pesticides. These and more issues constitute upstream problems related to my food intake.

Although this challenge only focused on the material trash collected, it uncovered so many more issues and questions that will help me to minimize both my trash and impact in the future.  I highly recommend participating in this challenge because it will change your outlook on your daily habits and inspire you to create better actions in the future.