Waste Production

         Everyone produces waste in one form or another. You may be the person who can go through 50 napkins in one sitting, or you may be the person who doesn't drink or eat anything unless it is out a prepackaged bottle or container. On April 17, 2014 we were assigned to record and observe just how much waste we go through in one day, and I was actually surprised to see what I discovered.  

In one day I managed to go through the following:

10 bottles of water 
1 bottle of apple juice
2 paper plates
4 plastic utensils
1 granola bar wrapper
~20 sheets of paper
~20 napkins 

          I go through a lot of bottled waters and juices on a daily basis. While on campus, I only like drinking water out of a bottle because I don't particularly like the taste of tap water. With that being said, I typically go through about 8-10 bottles of water a day and recycle all of them at the end of the week.Throughout the years I have discovered that I learn best by rewriting notes or homework problems. This explains why I go through so many sheets of paper on a daily basis. In the past I have retyped my notes that I take in class, but classes like Organic Chemistry are definitely difficult to rewrite on the computer. 

          Based on the waste produced in a single day, here are the amounts of waste I could potentially produce in a full year. 

3,650 bottles of water
365 bottles of juice
730 paper plates
1,460 plastic utensils 
365 granola bar wrappers
~7300 sheets of paper
~7300 napkins

          Using about 3,650 water bottles a year sounds a bit extreme and wasteful even if I am already recycling all the bottles. An easy solution would be to purchase a reusable water bottle that can save me more money and plastic bottles from possibly entering the landfills. I could also purchase some durable and washable plates and silverware instead of having to throw away so many disposable plates and plastic utensils. As for studying, I could still practice my same study habits with the use of a dry erase board. I wouldn't have to go through so many sheets of paper while cutting the cost of purchasing new packs of paper. I believe that with these few simple changes I could learn to be less wasteful and even save a lot of money in the process.