Trashing the environment in about 20 minutes
April 6, 2009
As students at the University of Arizona, many of us eat several times a day at the Student Union Memorial Center. Most of the restaurants serve their food in paper bags and Styrofoam or plastic containers. The food is then usually eaten with plastic forks and knives. This entire process takes all of about 20 minutes before all of our food wrappings, plastic containers and water bottles are in the trash.
So, how much damage are we doing to the environment by simply living our lives as college students?
Unfortunately, this is something that goes on at every college campus. Many of us make an effort to change our habits, which is a difficult thing to do, in an attempt to be more “green.” But what can we do about habits that we really can’t change?
We can’t stop eating at the student union. We can’t eat with our hands and we definitely can’t simply take our food without it being in some sort of convenient eating or carrying tray.
Students can take it upon themselves, however, to make changes in their daily waste habits. We can ask for food without all the wrapping or plastic containers, we can ask for everything to be placed in only one bag, or restaurants can start using single, disposable, and biodegradable plates.
In fact, several companies offer biodegradable food containers. These include food and soup coups made of eco-paper, biodegradable spoons and forks and deli containers (similar to clear, plastic containers) made from corn.
Several college campuses across the country have already made an effort to cut down on their waste. The University of New Mexico began using biodegradable materials in their student union in May 2008.
The University of Arizona has an overall grade of B from the College Sustainability Report Card. The UA’s grade for food and recycling is also a B, which proves that we’re not extremely wasteful as a school but positive changes can still be made.
