Overview
1) This week I need you to estimate how much trash in pounds your household throws away in a day. It's just an estimate...don't freak out on me. Now divide that number by the number of people you have in your household to get how many a) pounds per person per day of trash is produced in your household; b) Multiply the pounds per person of trash that you came up with by the 30 people in the class room! That's how much trash your class produced in one day! c) Now take your pounds of trash per person per day number and multiply it by 7 million...the number of people in the greater DFW area. That's a huge amount of trash produced each day! Think about how large that number would be in one year!!
For your discussion, tell us the three numbers 1) (a,b and c) that you came up with then list and explain 2) 5 things that you could do to reduce your waste stream. Please don't give generic answers that you got from the book. The 5 things should be what you could do in your own household and life to reduce your consumption and thereby reduce your waste stream. 3) Please include a picture of trash in your environment that is particularly poignant to you! The picture should be one that leaves an image, in your classmates mind, of the effect an overabundance of trash in the environment is having on the earth. I've included a short video instead of a picture.....
2) Reply to two of your classmates' posts in a substantive manner. Post 1:
I would estimate that my household throws away around 15 pounds of trash each day. I have four people in my household, so each of us throws away an average of around 3.75 pounds per day. When this amount is multiplied by the 30 people in our class, the total amount of trash produced per day is just over 112 pounds! By multiplying my daily waste average by 7 million, the estimated total amount of trash produced per day by the greater DFW area is 26.250 million! In response to the magnitude of these numbers, there are many things that myself and others can and should do to reduce daily waste production. One of the ways I can reduce my waste stream is using refillable containers, such as soap dispensers or food containers that can be refilled at certain grocery stores. Containers that cannot be refilled, such as pickle jars or sour cream tubs, can be cleaned and used for storage or used as Tupperware. I can also avoid using paper towels and paper napkins as much as possible and instead use cloth towels that can be washed and reused. One thing my grandma does to reduce waste is setting aside a day or two at the end of each week or every other week to use or combine all of the miscellaneous food she has left before going back to the grocery store. Lastly, I can reduce my waste stream by planning meals and calculating specific food quantities rather than guessing how much of each thing I need at the store and risking foods expiring. The picture I included is from last year when my friends and I spent the day collecting trash around our community.
Post: 2:
1) 10,5,150 There is only 2 people in my household and we do not use a lot of trash because we are not home a lot. We tend to throw away left over foods and plastic bags that had food in it.
2) 1. Use less tissue and buy reusable tissues and hand wash them 2. Be sure to recycle items that are recyclable. 3. buy more things that don't come in something that you have to throw away. 4. Start composting, most of our trash is left over foods or the ends of vegetables and fruits. 5. Buy more reusable items like glass items instead of using plastic bags to pack food in.
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