Foods I usually eat:

• Cheese Sticks
• Sandwich- bread+cheese+beef+mayonaise+lettuce
• Egg
• Ramen Noodles
• Chips
• Fast Food (burger, fries, pop,)
• Apples

All of the above use plastic packaging except egg, which uses cartons or styrofoam, steak that uses paper wrapping, and fast food which usually uses paper. Packages that are used constantly are plastic bags or sealed plastic.

Why I think those materials were chosen for those products:

• Cheese Sticks= Sealed Wrapping

Cheese sticks use sealed wrapping to prevent the cheese from going old and dry. It is also very easy to rip the package apart so it’s easier and quicker to eat it.

• Sandwich

bread= Bread uses plastic bags because it’s the cheapest way and its easier to package the bread into.

cheese= Some packaged cheese, like cheese sticks, use a sealed package, they probably only do It because It’s easier to package because It’s not efficient at all. There’s no way to seal it back up and then you leave It in the fridge for a few days and then the cheese gets all dry and not good. Other cheese packages that have a plastic zip are better because then you won’t have dry cheese after a few days.

beef= Beef uses paper & plastic bags. The paper is for the beef to sperate and the plastic is the packaging. Like I said plastic is the most efficient way of packaging, and It’s cheap.

mayonnaise= mayonnaise uses a long plastic container that has a hole in the top to squeeze it out unless you get the jarred ones that come in plastic and rarely glass. The plastic is for it to be easier to squeeze. If you had a glass one you wouldn’t be able to squeeze it.

lettuce= I think lettuce uses plastic to keep it from going bad. Some market lettuce sells them without bags. You can either get one of the free plastic bags or you can use your own reusable bag.

• Egg= cartons & styrofoam

Eggs use styrofoam or cartons so that the eggs don’t get damaged or cracked before the customer purchases them.

• Ramen Noodles= plastic bag packaging

Ramen uses plastic bag wrapping because it’s easier to open & It’s a kind of junk food and all junk food use plastic packaging.

• Chips= Lastic bags/ paper cans

Chips use plastic bags because It’s quick and easy to open. Some chip brands like Pringles use paper cans because It’s stacked and easier to grab.

• Fast Food (burger, fries, pop,)=paper

I think fast food uses paper because It’s the easiest to produce a lot at a time, and easier for people to dispose of.

• Apples

Apples use plastic bags because It holds the apples without tearing so they don’t fall out. Some markets sell bulk apples and you can choose to use to free plastic ones or use your own bag.

How packaging can affect the person positively or negatively?

Packaging can affect a person positively for being easy to open and to be ready to eat. Sometimes the aesthetics of the packaging can affect the way a person feels about the food, for example, you wouldn’t be as “happy” to eat out of a wrapper that had no colour or designs as to when there are colours and designs. Another way packaging can affect the person using it positively is when the packaging it comes with can be reused, or even better have some sort of image on It that is so pretty/cute/memorable that the person wouldn’t want to immediately throw it away.

 Packaging can affect the person negatively when It is not easy to open. When you’re hungry you wouldn’t want to eat something that you need to use scissors with, everybody hates that. Packaging can also affect the person using it when they have a huge load of useless garbage when they unpackage it. Sometimes too much useless garbage in packaging can make people stop buying/ eating the product. 

Where do these packaging materials go?

When you are done eating something, where do you put it? In the trash. After the trash bin, the garbage goes into the bigger trash bins where garbage trucks come and pick them up once a week. After that, the trucks bring the trash and whatever that’s in there gets dumped it into a landfill. Some of it gets sorted but most of the garbage is plowed into the dirt. When the garbage decomposes it releases a gas, and we use this to be less dependant on fossil fuels. Some garbage is burned to also create energy in waste-to-energy.

Even though we use landfills to decompose and turn the garbage into usable gas, it’s not all that easy. Plastic bags we use everyday take 10-20 years. Plastic bottles take up to 450 years (if not recycled), and normal plastic takes up to 1000 years (if not recycled). So it takes just a few days to have the garbage be transferred into landfills, but it takes years and years for it to actually decompose. Another thing to add is that animal habitats are also getting affected because landfills are usually near wildlife and far away from the cities. This can be bad because after a landfill can’t fit anymore garbage they need to make more, and then damage even more wildlife habitats.

What happens to food waste?

Food waste is also taken to landfills, but it gets composted instead. You could even buy compost at your local landfill or even compost your organic materials in your backyard. It helps remove pesticides and reduced need for water in your plants.

Ways to decrease the amount of waste you create:

1. Try not to buy/support items that have lots of unnecessary plastics
2. Make sure to recycle and use the right garbage can for the right category of waste
3. Try and use your own bag when you go buy groceries
4. If you can’t reduce it, try to reuse plastic as much as you can

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sites I used:

residentialwastesystems.com/blog/where-does-your-garbage-go-after-its-collected

https://www.thebalancesmb.com/how-long-does-it-take-garbage-to-decompose-2878033