According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency Containers and packaging alone contribute over 23% of the material reaching landfills in the U.S. Additionally, packaging makes up a huge majority of the municipal garbage that ends up on beaches and other waterways. This is a problem because fish, birds, and other aquatic wildlife are often harmed by ingesting plastic bags and other debris related to food packaging waste. Waste in the ocean also causes navigation hazards for boats and results in losses to the shipping, fishing, and tourism industries alike.
Therefore, the main and central focus for my blog and semester research will be the issue of food sustainability and in particular how it affects food packaging waste in the everyday lives of overall America and corporate America alike. Unbeknownst to many people waste from food packaging is integral to sustainability issues experienced by the local and abroad food industry and should be a central discussion when looking at ways to make America a more fiscally stable and environmentally friendly country.
Sustainability models have been a huge selling point for products from large companies, corporate magnates, and small businesses over the last couple years and in particular has been a is huge topic of debate in the recent political race for the president of the United States. This is most evidenced by the supreme court the highest law in the land standing up for clean power in all states (The New York Times).
My major is Political Science so I am very curious about the political scheme in America and the various environmental platforms of particular candidates and parties. Of course, I have been following the primary elections, and the more I do the more I realize that many of the potentials do not believe that a sustainable future is integral to the survival of the American economy, capitalist corporate activity or that it is a high priority threat to both our natural and artificial environments. This fact is befuddling to me in particular since the science and effects are obvious, so, obvious in fact that we can see effects every day in various formats. Animal endangerment from food packaging ingestion, trashed landscapes and chemical leeched changes, and problems of waste management are all major concerns that we are facing because the human nature is unsustainable.
A stroll in and around the hiking trails of Blunn Creek and its various connected bodies of water will reveal an unbelievably immense amount of accumulated and discarded food packaging trashed by…you guessed it humans. The trash is visibly evident in water, under rocks, buried under logs and everywhere in between. It looks often like some flood carried it from a landfill and deposited it there but in reality it is just left by people too lazy to take it to a proper trashcan. The pieces of garbage laden both sides of the intermittent creek. Excess food packaging and increased demand for portable snacks is one reason for this increase in unsightly packaging waste. The food industry has been identified by both environmental economists and scientists alike as one of the most vulnerable markets. It has been predicted that not only restaurants, but also agriculture/aquaculture in general would suffer from increased food packaging wastes (UK Department of Environmental Affairs).
Over the last month I have spent more time outdoors at various parks and lakes close to downtown, and I have noticed the incredible amount of trash that has taken over the once pristine areas.
One of my most remembered outings took me to the northern side of the lake near Austin High School. It was a gloomy overcast day in the mid to low 60s and there were not many people were out. Most were walking somberly along as I was, or sitting in solitude enjoying a cool day from the Austin heat. As I walked along the lake and looked in to the water there were bits and pieces of what seemed to be chip bag clinging to the shore. I even saw a person walking by simply throw their gum wrapper in the water and move on as if nothing wrong has occurred. I think what was most surprising about the whole scene was the amount of metallic packing I could spot glinting at me even in the dull light. It was almost like something out of one of those illusion fun houses. Everywhere I looked distorted little images of me looked back in the metallic packing. I decided to walk a little further from the lake and into the trees. I was amazed at the amount of insects hard at work. I looked at a tree and saw a line of ants carrying what seemed to be small pieces of cheesy Dorito goodness back home. As I puzzled at where the ants must have gotten this snack I stooped down and found a bag of half eaten chips near the tree shoved in the grasses nearby. I looked around some more and saw a small crow pecking away at what seemed to be a Torchy’s taco wrapper. I was astounded because the bird wasn’t not interested in the plethora of ants or other insects around him as a snack but instead was fascinated by the wrapper. This could have been due to the smell or perhaps the shiny exterior.
The main subject of my blog is that of food wastes and the economic, social, and environmental aspects associated with it, but I also intend to research further and see if there has been any direct links made to animal behavior after consuming human food and or adverse side effects like weight gain or diabetes. Could the diseases we see effecting humans be also effecting our animal counterparts? Or the shiny food wrappers we toss away without a thought be adversely affecting the feeding habits of birds and other animal species in cities and other urban areas?
Environmental Protection Agency, US. Toolkit: Reducing the Food Wastage Footprint. N.p.: US EPA, n.d. Reducing Food Waste. 2014. Web. 2 Feb. 2016.
The New York Times. The New York Times, 16 Feb. 2016. Web. 20 Feb. 2016.
The United Kingdom Department of Environmental Affairs. Food and Agriculture, 09 May 2015. Web. 10 Feb. 2016.