Food. We eat and prepare food everyday, but have you ever thought about the packaging that it comes in? For example, a lot of vegetables and fruits are packaged in some sort of plastic or cardboard, even when it’s not necessary for there to be packaging on it. Light snacks such as chips, cookies, and candy almost always come in plastic packaging. Meats like chicken, fish, and beef come in styrofoam and plastic packaging as well. You might not think too much about the packaging after you’ve eaten and thrown it away, but even the smallest things can have a large effect. 

Single use plastics, such as wrappers on candy, takes about 1,000 years to decompose. Cardboard takes only 2 months compared to that, but styrofoam, a widely used packaging item, isn’t biodegradable at all. However, for the consumers, these types of packaging are very convenient, because all they need to do is take it off and throw it out. And that’s not all, because even food itself is wasted, not just the packaging. food waste is a significant part of the waste that we produce, and a lot of people don’t think about throwing out food most of the time. The environmental impact is quite devastating, and the longer the waste takes to decompose, the more it will add to pollution and the overall health of the Earth. That’s why we should be mindful about what we use and throw away. But what can we do about this? 

There are many things we can do to help the environment and reduce our waste, such as recycling/composting. recycling your plastic containers, aluminum cans, milk cartons, etc. all play a big part in helping the environment. Composting your food waste is also extremely important, because, as I mentioned earlier, food waste is a significant part of all waste that we create. Composting will make sure that the food biodegrades and gives back to the earth. Lastly, the best thing to do is to refrain from using single use products, such as plastic bags and soft plastics.