THursday Night Jambayala

It is Tuesday night, and what does Tuesday night mean? It is your turn to make supper for your parents and two other siblings. You decide on jambalaya, garlic bread, and a salad. Before you begin cooking, you realize the trash is full, so you go to the pantry and get a plastic bag from the box of plastic bags. You empty the trash and take the full bag out to the garbage (you are such a good help around the house). Then, you put the trash inside another plastic bag inside your trash can. You return to the kitchen, and begin making supper.

While preparing the meal, you discard the following:

      • 2 plastic sausage wrappers

      • 2 Styrofoam trays

      • 2 cans from the broth

      • The bag from the rice

      • the bag that the pre-made salad came in

      • a plastic bottle from the salad dressing

      • the paper wrapper from the garlic bread

      • 6 cans of coke

      • several bags from other ingredients

In preparing the meal, you have filled yet another bag of trash, so you empty the garbage again (you are such a wonderful responsible child), take the trash out to the garbage can, and get another plastic bag out of the box in the pantry.

 

What you just read is just one of many examples of how packaging is destroying our environment. Perhaps you weren't aware, but all of that waste which you just produced in repairing a single meal ends up in a landfill, where it will take hundreds of years to breakdown if it breaks down at all. Plus, we haven't even addressed the other problems that can be caused by landfills. For example: burning trash.  You are probably thinking, "Oh, who cares I am sure the landfills are far away." Wrong!  There is a landfill right outside of Walker, about 12 miles from school.

As consumers, we need to be conscious of what we are putting in the trash. Think about it...Is all of this really necessary? Think about some of the newer convenience products that are on the market:

  • disposable countertop wipes

  • scented plug-in air fresheners

  • disposable plastic cutting boards

  • disposable floor wipes

  • take out food

  • disposable diapers

  • disposable toilet brushes

The list never ends! But why? It is all a question of convenience. In our rush, rush society, people see these products as being time savers. Do they actually work better than soap, water and elbow grease? It is doubtful. But they sure are faster! People are in a convenience mind set, and manufactures play on that with reckless disregard for the environment. Are you willing to add all of that unnecessary trash to our growing landfill problem just to save a few minutes a week? Don't you have a moral obligation to reduce what we as a society put into these landfills? If you don't, then who does?

 

? What are three things that you could do in the Tuesday Night Jambalaya situation to reduce the amount of trash destined for the land fill in Walker? How could you change your purchasing to reduce the amount of trash generated by that meal?

 

To Recycle or Not to Recycle?

You are going on a web quest! A web quest is a trip around the Internet where you collect specific information and answer some questions in the hopes that you will learn about a particular topic or issue. To begin, click on the Introduction button, use the other buttons to lead you on your web quest.

Home Introduction Task Process Resources Evaluation Conclusion For Teachers Credits