Essay 2: Proposal Essay: Eating Less Plastic

When running late on time many of us tend to draw ourselves down the quick and easiest route, quick foods. We like the quick “to-go” lunchables because who has the time to make a sandwich anymore? Housewives are growing fewer and fewer it seems. Depending on just one source of income becomes increasingly difficult, especially in times of economic mayhem. Lunchables, which range anywhere from two dollars to three dollars and fifty cents are cheap and come with a desert and a drink all wrapped up in a plastic delight. A bowl of easy-mac, or stovetop ramen easily comes at a price of a dollar or under. Americans cannot help themselves, we favor the “to-go” eats. However, all that cheap food covered in plastic adds up to the environment, which in turn, we may all have to pay for the consequences.

What if we had more time in a day? Would we stop and savor things grown right out of the Earth? Some of us already look upon organics and local grown foods as if it were a gem. It tastes so good, but it costs a pretty penny. Larger populations living in huge cities cannot always find the space or the time to fight with the flow or “pace” of eating. There’s no privacy to nurture a garden; and there’s always off seasons to gardening. It seems that prepping and planning real meals is a full-time job alone. Its time that is rare to most of us now. We avoid spending the whole day making homemade pasta when it’s so easy to come upon a package of spaghetti noodles for a dollar at the grocery store. Even hunters savor their sweet space efficient MREs when on their hunting trips. No kitchen, and no leftovers. Kids come home to their afternoon snacks consisting of pop tarts wrapped in plastic. Do we know any other foods that don’t come in plastics? Most of us do not have the year round luxury of running to the backyard to pick out apples. Can we really help ourselves?

Plastics haven’t necessarily been viewed as a negative. Medical practices all over the world often rely on plastics in important medical procedures. Plastics are also helpful by holding our groceries, for packing, and transporting foods. Trouble is have we become entirely too reliant on them. We are creating a plastic wasteland. It seems that plastics are created to be “re-used”, however, they are incidentally non-biodegradable. “In 2007, the United States generated almost 14 million tons of plastics in the MSW stream as containers and packaging, almost 7 million tons as nondurable goods and about 10 million tons as durable goods.” (www.epa.com) More than likely, college students who eat top ramen a few times a week do not see uses for their beloved ramen wrappers. The shopping bags we use at the grocery stores do not necessarily wear the face of innocence either. And article on the Treehugger website stated, “ some bags marked “biodegradable” are not actually so — they’re recycled plastic mixed with cornstarch. The cornstarch biodegrades and the plastic breaks down into tiny little pieces but does not actually “biodegrade,” leaving a yucky polymer mess (if in small pieces).” (www.treehugger.com) There is no real way to avoid a good or bad plastic. We can only consume less by using the plastics that are durable and friendly for packing our meals each day.

Plastics are also found as a positive in other things such as our automobiles. Finally, we’ve cut back on our rusty old pickup trucks and converted our automobile exteriors with a “durable” plastic. Which has been commonly seen to shatter or melt in extreme temperatures, but is extremely easy to replace. Plastics are also found in our furniture. The reclining hinge on some of our suede sofas commonly snap as well. “Durable” plastics are commonly viewed as Tupperware to the eater’s mind. What if we could use our Tupperware containers instead of Ziploc bags everyday? The cut-backs could be huge!

Taking small steps in our eating styles and what we eat could dramatically improve plastic consumptions. Also, deterring from “plastic” eats may cause a change in what we eat. When we make the choice to not eat things from a “non-durable”, flimsy plastic coating, which may consist of things like pop tarts, we are changing what we eat too. It seems that the worst forms of foods come inside a plastic wrapper. They are highly processed and take many forms of undesired wastes.

Works cited

Plastics: Wastes: Resource Conservation: Common Wastes and Materials

November 6th, 2008.http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/materials/plastics.htm

Paper Bags or Plastic Bags? Everything You Need to Know by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA , 09/08 http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/07/paper-bags-or-plastic-bags-everything-you-need-to-know.php?page=4