If recycling were to increase by 7% in the United States alone, greenhouse gas emissions would decrease by 9.8 million metric tons of carbon equivalents (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [EPA], 2008). Decreasing greenhouse gas emissions would help reduce climate change that can be detrimental to crops (Ojwang, Agatsiva, & Situma, 2010). These crops are the only food source for many, thus by helping to preserve them, recycling indirectly decreases world hunger. Another contributor of world hunger is food wasting, as more food is bought than is consumed. This increases food demand and subsequently its prices, making it more difficult for low-income families to afford food (United Nations Environment Programme [UNEP], 2009).
The action for my FNH 355 assignment on world hunger was driven by perhaps one of the best motivators out there… guilt. After being slightly dumb-founded by a fact presented to us in class (enough food exists on this planet to feed everyone), jars lying in the garbage bin in my kitchen, still containing scoops of food, left a bitter taste in my mouth. This obvious disregard for food wastage and recycling, presented within my own kitchen, was hard to ignore, and thus became the clear choice for my assignment. I spoke with my five roommates; informing them of the negative effects that food wasting and lack of recycling can have on world hunger. I pointed out how we could improve by consuming the food within recyclable containers more thoroughly, and by ensuring that we are recycling as much as possible. I devised a recycling system within my kitchen, designed to discourage food wasting (its more openness exposing uneaten food within recycled containers) and the disposal of recyclable items into the garbage.
Recycling system prior to assignment: Quick to fill, therefore resulting in extra recyclables being thrown into the garbage. Each week, one roommate was assigned to take out the recycling, which included sorting it before disposing of it into apartment building communal bins in the basement. This unattractive task was therefore not performed very regularly.
Recycling system post action: More bins (labelled glass and metal, paper, and plastics) which can hold more recyclables, preventing them from being thrown into the garbage. The already-sorted-recyclables also encouraged much more frequent disposal into the communal bins.
Apartment building communal bins: one bin for paper, one for plastics, metal and glass, identical to the smaller version set up within our kitchen.
After overcoming the initial uncertainty of what my roommates thought of our “talk”, I grew to see the positive effects of my action. My roommates expressed to me that they hadn’t realized the impact that recycling and food wastage has on world hunger. I felt satisfied, knowing that I had opened their eyes to a fuller understanding. This experience has made me hopeful that this understanding will spread from my roommates to others. Overall, I felt proud as I noticed a rather instantaneous decrease in both the amount of recyclables thrown into the garbage can and the food being wasted in my apartment unit. Occasionally, I felt frustration as time went on, as I noticed an increase in the number of recyclable containers thrown into the garbage and in the amount of food left unconsumed in recyclables. I felt that this was largely a reflection of the initial effects of my talk with my roommates wearing off. However, the overall action was pleasing to watch unfold right within my own kitchen.
Record of the number of recyclables found in the garbage per week and number of recyclables containing useable food found per week for six weeks.
Recycling is important in order to reduce our carbon footprints, which in turn could help reduce global climate change. A global climate change of even just 1°C could be enough to turn prosperous crops all over the world into barren deserts (Nellemann et al., 2009). This would be particularly devastating for farmers who rely on their crops for food (Nellemann et al., 2009). After my action, our household recycling increased to almost 100%. To give perspective, it has been calculated that in the United States, an average family of four could reduce its carbon emissions by almost 340 pounds if they recycled all of their plastics (EPA, n.d.). By recycling almost everything we could, my five roommates and I reduced our carbon emissions by a similar if not greater amount. Reducing our emissions meant that we better played our part in reducing global climate change, which can be responsible for poor farming conditions and thus the hunger of many.
This action was largely limited in its scope. In order to truly make an indirect difference on world hunger, recycling must be performed by more than one household. In fact, we would need to reduce global carbon emissions by 80% by 2050 in order to prevent a global temperature change of more than 2°C (Hassol, n.d.). It is also due to this small scope that it is hard to quantify the effects that the recycling of my household had on global greenhouse gas emissions, let alone on world hunger.
By regularly not wasting food, people learn to buy only food that they will fully consume. They do not unnecessarily increase global food demand. Thus food prices remain more affordable for low-income families, and the number of hungry in the world is lower (Nelleman et al., 2009). Although my action was again limited by its small scope, this effect on world hunger could be established if millions of people were to not food waste. Another limitation of my action is that most food within the household is wasted as a result of the food expiring before being used, therefore in order to really conquer food waste it would perhaps be more beneficial to look into actions that address this (Gooch, Felfel, Marenick, 2010).
Did this make a difference? In some ways, no. Six females living in Vancouver, not wasting food and recycling dutifully is not going to save an entire family starving of hunger. Although the effects of this are not actually quantifiable due to the extensive number of components that contribute to world hunger, it can be assumed that this small-scale action is not enough to “make a difference”. However, how do you quantify the difference? In some ways this action can be said to have made a difference, largely due to the fact that I made a difference in the thoughts and actions of my roommates. If they shared what they learned from this experience with others, there is no way of knowing how much this action or similar actions could spread. This action more closely ensures that each member of my household is playing their part in not wasting food and reducing global climate change (by recycling). And if this action were to spread, if everyone were to play his or her part similarly within his or her own households, would a difference be made then? I believe that such a large-scale action would make a difference.
By doing this assignment, I discovered that many are not aware that recycling and food wastage impact world hunger. Even within a well-educated household there can exist a lack of understanding of the correlation between both recycling and food wastage with world hunger. Carelessness when it comes to recycling and food wasting is therefore not often a result of blatant disregard for world hunger but rather a result of ignorance. Although my roommates already understood that they should recycle and not waste food, the understanding of how doing these things could indirectly help those starving across the world, greatly increased their desire to do them. I concluded that it is this understanding and perhaps the guilt that comes with it, that may help motivate people to take part in more recycling and less food wasting themselves. Thus it is important that more people are educated on the correlation between both food wasting and recycling with world hunger.
Realizing the importance of educating people on the correlation between recycling and world hunger, I endeavor to inform more people on this correlation in hopes that they too will be similarly motivated to recycle more and waste less food. First, I will educate both of my sisters, and encourage them to set up similar recycling systems. As captain of the UBC Women’s Cross Country and Track and Field Team I plan on implementing this action, including both the “talk” and the recycling system into our locker room, which currently has no recycling bins. Furthermore, I will continue to recycle and not waste food as much as possible within my own daily life. Lastly, I believe that this experience has made me more likely to stop to consider the indirect effects of an action. Whether this action is within the chemistry lab, within my relationships, or in regards to something in the news, this experience has made me more apt to considering the non-obvious and indirect consequences of decisions.
References
Agatsiva, J., Ojwang, G. O., & Situma, C. (2010). Analysis of Climate Change and Variability
Risks in the Smallholder Sector. Retrieved from
http://www.fao.org/docrep/013/i1785e/i1785e00.pdf
Gooch, M., Felfel, A., Marenick, N. (2010). Food Waste in Canada. Retrieved from
http://vcm-international.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Food-Waste-in-Canada-112410.pdf
Nellemann, C., MacDevette, M., Manders, T., Eickhout, B., Svihus, B., Prins, A. G., Kaltenborn, P. (2009).
The Environmental Food Crisis. Retrieved from http://www.grida.no/files/publications
/FoodCrisis_lores.pdf
Reducing Waste Can Make a Difference. (n.d.). In United States Environmental Protection
Agency online. Retrieved from http://www.epa.gov/osw/nonhaz/municipal/pubs/ghg/climfold.pdf.
Source Reduction and Recycling: A Role in Preventing Global Climate Change. (2008). In
United States Environmental Protection Agency online. Retrieved from
http://www.epa.gov/region4/rcra/mgtoolkit/documents/Climate_Change_Fact_Sheet.pdf.