From Plate to Trash

Adjusting to college life is a big change for every freshman. There are the large things, like not seeing your family every day, not having the same 7 classes 5 days a week, or just not being able to come back to an empty house after school. But living on this  campus has brought some good changes to my life and has forced me to be more environmentally sustainable. I no longer drive anywhere since everything is in walking distance (I don’t even need to drive to the gym!) I save water by taking showers, not baths… Everyone takes baths at home, right? And, of course, not having air conditioning in the summer months saves energy. So college forces me to be somewhat more sustainable but what changes in my college life are not so sustainable? I have thought about this and found the dining halls to be my weakness. Since almost all my meals are “all you can eat buffet style,” I have noticed how much food I end up wasting every day. There are so many options at each meal I often try a bit of everything, then realizing I hate most of what I choose, throw everything away and get a new plate. Or I simply just take too much food since I pay no attention to how much I am getting. I mean, for $50,000 a year I feel I should take as much food as I can but, working to cut down on my waste is more important than getting all my money’s worth. My food waste has never been an issue before coming here since my family would make all of our own meals and I would eat what was on my plate. But I can imagine this will still be a challenge for me considering I’m often a bad judge at determining how hungry I actually am and take more than my stomach can handle. In the upcoming weeks, I am going to take very small portions and will try to eat everything on my plate, even if I dislike it. My final goal at the end of this project will be to not scrape anything off my plate, including napkins. Not only will this diminish my food waste but will also help me think about what I am eating to avoid that freshman 15!