Me, the Typical American Consumer

Part 1: My 7-Day Trash Journal

Day 1:
Hot Pocket plastic wrap
2 paper towels
Yogurt cup

Day 2: 
Fiber bar wrapper 
Yogurt cup
Gum
Envelope
Paper towel
Cardboard Box
Styrofoam

Day 3:
Fiber bar wrapper
Large yogurt cup
Plastic spoon
Paper Towel
Shoe laces
Hot pocket plastic wrap
Toothbrush

Day 4:
Fiber bar wrapper
Starbucks espresso shot 
Gum
Paper Napkin
Plastic Tray
Plastic Wrap

Day 5:
Fiber Bar wrapper
Enevelope
Magazine article
Plastic cup

Day 6:
Paper napkin
bag of popcorn
Hair gel container
Pack of gum

Day 7:
Gum
Fiber Bar wrapper
Gallon of Arnold Palmer
Bubble wrap
Starbucks espresso shot
Bag of Pirate's Booty
Paper towel
Napkin
Box of raisins

Part 2: My Trash Analysis

What my trash production reveals about me is that, along with nearly every other American, I am the typical consumer, buying products of both planned and perceived obsolescence, fueling the two-way cycle of producing waste that is slowly destroying our planet. Sure, it is entirely possible for me, and really anyone else to take a stand and do something about it. However, there are numerous factors that make having the habits I have as I consumer far too convenient to break cold turkey.

First and most evidently, being a first-year college student is limiting by nature. I lack the physical space, time, money, and quite frankly, the enthusiasm to change my lifestyle to a more ecologically sustainable one. Particularly because I am in a double with no kitchen, it would seem nearly impossible to spend my already limited budget on reusable plates, cups and silverware that I would have virtually no place to keep. I’m not going to buy a whole chicken, cook it in the oven and serve it on a reusable plate that I’ll wash. I’m going to buy a cardboard box of chicken nuggets that are contained in plastic wrap and microwave them on a plastic plate that will be thrown out.

Secondly, there is a fundamental problem with production that not only makes non-reusable products convenient, but socially acceptable and almost necessary. It seems as though anything you buy, particularly food, as much of my trash journal consists of, comes with some sort of cover or wrapping which is immediately thrown in the trash before consumption or after, which is a fine example of planned obsolesce. For example, even here at The University of Denver, the “Fill Your Fridge” service gives me each month cups of humus, yogurt, bread and more, all of which have some sort of plastic casing or wrap that ends up in my trash can. Even more shocking, despite the numerous water fountains across campus that track the number of water bottles saved, the “Fill Your Fridge” service also contains a 24 pack of bottled water. Not until recently has the world begun to think critically about our consumption of non-reusable products and its effects on the planet. Although this is the right first step in ending the addictive cycle of using the earth’s resources only to throw them out months later, it is acting upon said critical thinking that will get us somewhere. Instead of buying an individual product like, say a box of Fiber One bars, one of the most popular things from my trash journal, imagine a world where its possible to go to a grocery store that has a giant mound of fiber bars, entirely unpackaged. This would eliminate throwing away both the cardboard box, but also the plastic wrap that covers each individual bar. However, although this may be ecologically beneficial, it has its downsides. First, companies that produce that plastic and cardboard would take a toll. Secondly, that packaging allows for those fiber bars to travel great distances to distributors. Without it, there would just be a whole bunch of fiber bars exposed to god knows what else is also in those planes and semi-trucks that are used for their transportation. Mostly importantly though, people like myself plain and simply don’t see saving the planet as more important than the convenience to get what we want, when we want it, which is an awful fundamental that has been taught to us generation after generation. I am not personally suggesting that we create this sort of grocery store, but it’s that sort of thinking that we need to adopt in order to reduce a product’s planned obsolesce and find the right solution.

My individual unhealthy and unsustainable habits, such buying boxes of raisins, as a consumer make very little impact on the world, and unfortunately, if I were to change my ways and cross over from the dark said, per se, my individual, now healthier and more sustainable habits would still make very little impact. That however, is no excuse not to change. The truth of the matter is that not only does the much larger, general public have the most impact on our harmful ways, but it is also the big, grossing corporations that do too. Indirectly, they both are part of a cycle that, whether they mean to or not, depletes our planet’s natural resources and enfeebling our ozone layer. Sure, I am part of the larger, general public I speak of, and sure I can certainly make a difference, particularly if I make my healthier habits permanent, but ultimately, if I want to change the world, the world, not a small fraction of it, will have to change with me.

Within this harmful cycle, between the gathering of resources and the consumer throwing them away months later, is the world of marketing and advertisement. Unfortunately, their only real agenda is to make money by convincing the consumer that they need to have a certain product or else they’ll will be labeled as behind the times, old-fashioned, against progression, etc. Particularly in more recent times, many products such as Bounty Paper Towels have begun to be advertised as green or constructed from partially recycled materials. While this is certainly a step in the right direction, get this: Bounty also offers shipping, which goes back to convenience and catering to the lazy, where they will pack your rolls of Bounty in a cardboard box filled with Styrofoam, one of the least recyclable materials we know of. Needless to say, although their intentions are good, this is a prime example of green washing.  Ironically, it isn’t products like Bounty, or even the endlessly popular petroleum that are American’s largest exports. Rather, as Edward Humes, garbologist extraordinaire, states in his novel Garbology, trash is; it “has become a product” and in turn, is now “America’s leading export.” (9)

As Fritjof Capra writes in his book The Web of Life: “The more we study the major problems of our time, the more we come to realize that they cannot be understood in isolation.” (19) The topic of making our world a healthier and more sustainable place to live for future generations is certainly no exception. My habits as a typical American consumer are fueling the big corporations to continue this vicious cycle and those same corporations are also fueling me. Although it is entirely possible for the big corporations to be the one to change us for the better, they’re the ones who started us down this destructive path. Instead, and much more likely, it will be the inverse; our habits as consumers must change. In turn, although it may take time, corporations will also follow suit to this new paradigm shift.