Journal 8 - List of Consumer Goods

April 13th 2011

Wake up in the morning and make breakfast. Breakfast consist of eggs in which is package that is a Styrofoam substance. This packaging must be made out of several of different chemicals that are needs to produce this. I believe it would be a smarter way to use recycled materials in order to hold the eggs. I also had a single serving package of oatmeal and cottage cheese. The oatmeal package was made of paper. This paper was most likely used from a tree that was cut down, and not recycled paper. The cottage cheese container was made of plastic. I know plastic can also be recycled and it actually said on the label that the container was made from recycled products. This is a great step in order to make our environment that much more eco-friendly. On the way out the door to class, I grabbed a 20oz-bottled water that was made of plastic. Plastic water bottles take up most of the dumps all around the world. Therefore, plastic water bottles I believe need to be depleted. The convenience factor is why most people use it, and it why I use it as well. If they were not to sell bottled water, I would drink water out of the faucet. For lunch I had McDonalds. I have two cheeseburgers and a soda. The two cheeseburgers were wrapped in a paper material that by most will get thrown out and not recycled. The soda cup is made out of paper material that can easily be recycled. Yet, like most product packaging, people will throw them right into the trash and not recycle. I also had a protein bar later on in the day. The protein bar package was made of a plastic-like film. This film seemed that it could be very harmful if burned, which most trash is burned. At night for dinner I had chicken and veggies that both came out of a plastic freezer bag. The plastic freezer bags also usually get thrown in the trash and are not reused or recycled.
All in all, just through going by my every day routine, there is so much that I throw away and do not even realize. I need to become more self-conscious with toss things that can be recycled into the recycling bin, rather than the garbage. Every time I do this exercise I am able to learn from myself and able to grow in a more eco-friendly direction.

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