Notes

Alex Joslin
Mrs. Beswick
English 202
June 23, 2016
Waste in Our Class Rooms
My mother was born in Mexico. She grew up poor in a ranch where starvation was not uncommon. People ate their food not wasting a single crumb. Arriving to the US was a bit of a culture shock. Her foreign eyes saw how privileged people were and yet how blind they were to it. She currently works at a daycare called Children’s Paradise. It is a privately owned school that in reality, is far from paradise. This daycare yields so many problems yet people turn a blind eye to them due to lack of education. One of the biggest problems here is the constant waste of paper towels, water, plastic utensils and more importantly, food. Leftover food from the cafeteria is thrown in the garbage every single day. This simple example of waste at my mother’s work, is a minute reflection to the bigger picture of waste in America. The solution begins with education. Schools like where my mom teaches, poorly educate their kids about the importance of not wasting which creates problems for our environment, economy and ourselves.
The source of this wastefulness comes from a lack of education. At my mother’s work kids will waste paper towels, plastic utensils, water, and most of all, food. In addition, no one recycles plastic bottles or aluminum cans. She is the only teacher who cares about this issue at her work. When children waste, it creates a domino effect that teaches other students that wasting is okay. One of the parents, who is from Iraq, was upset at her child when she put a whole bowl of cereal she had ask for into the trash. Her little boy had done the same thing with a banana. It is no surprise that 40% of food produced in the U.S. today goes uneaten. Coming from a very poor country the Iraqi mother told my mother, “There are thousands of children starving in Iraq and here are my children throwing away precious food.” Her children have learned from other students that wasting is the norm. It is not the child's fault, rather it is a system that does not recognize the importance of conserving food.
Poorly educating kids about waste management and recycling has repercussions to the health of our environment. About 95% of food thrown away is taken to a landfill to rot. In 2013 alone, 35 million tons of food was disposed of. Once in the landfills, food decomposes producing methane gas resulting into greenhouse gases thus contributing to climate change. Climate change results in rising sea levels, acidifying oceans, droughts intensifying, extreme weather events, West Antarctic ice sheets melting, and the destruction of natural habitats both on land and water.
Wasting food along with other resources negatively affects our economy. The children at my mother’s daycare will take a whole banana for lunch, will not eat it and throw it away in the trash. That is 60 cents down the drain. In 2010, the United States accumulated $161.6 billion of food loss. The top three food categories that contributed the most in food loss where meat, vegetables, and dairy products. If our society emphasized the importance of saving food, billions of dollars could easily be saved. Recycling is also economically efficient. It is much cheaper to recycle than it is to outsource labor to dig up resources to create new material. Also states like California have a cash refund value on beverage containers which means one can receive money back by simply recycling them at their local recycling center. There is 100 million dollars worth of bottles and cans in California’s landfills waiting to be turned in for money. Children’s paradise could effortlessly collect bottles and cans and cash them in. This is would add extra money to their school, teach kids recycling is important, and reduce the amount of plastic and aluminum in our overcrowded landfills.
Wasting not only does damage to our economy and environment it also affects ourselves personally. If our children waste food and school supplies at school then there is nothing stopping them from wasting at home. Teaching kids to recycle and to only take what they can eat would go a long way. It could be saving you so much money in the long run. If the Children’s Paradise taught their children to not waste food then perhaps they could save a little money and make enrollment less expensive.
There are simple solutions to stop wasting at Children's Paradise. The biggest change that must happen is to educate. A dialogue about the reduction of food waste and other school materials must take place between the kids, parents, supervisors, assistance and the managers of this daycare. We first need to bring up this issue at parent-teacher meetings. In addition management needs to be aware of all the money they could save by simply teaching children not to waste paper towels, plastic cups and food. Lets explain to them why wasting is bad. Every Time a child recycles a plastic bottle or aluminum can we could give them $0.05. Children love money and they could use their money to buy themselves a reward like a small candy. There needs to be a modification of the rules and regulations at Children's Paradise. Leftover food is often thrown in the trash. Parents are not able to take the food outside of the school because the institution is afraid lawsuits. As a result the food goes into the trash. This policy must be eliminated. The school needs to change their policy and create a contract that would make parents and others responsible for their own actions if they choose to bring the leftover home. This contract would say that the school cannot be sued by anyone who claims the food made them sick. Also if no one wants to take the food home they should just donated to the local food bank or give it to the homeless around town. Also it would be nice if they had a small refrigerator they could keep leftover food in so they could eat left overs. To be clear these solutions are not answers for solving climate change rather a simple way to cut out one of the multiple factors accelerating climate change.
Wasting of food and other materials is a big issue in our school. Children’s Paradise is just a small example of a much larger problem. Wasting of food contributes to climate change, is bad for our economy and affects us personally. To solve this problem we must first address it at a local level. It all begins with education. Let’s teach our kids from a very young age the importance of recycling and saving food. Once we do this it will create a domino effect that will influence others to do the same as well. Let us make wasting abnormal.