Monday- Christine Brown

I was really afraid to go trash digging but I was curious and I did it anyway. It was a mistake to tell my mom to get a scoop my dog's poo instead of using a plastic bag because when I opened the trash can I got a full blast of the stench. I kind of failed at this part because I was unable to sort out the trash, but at a glance, I know there was a bunch of toilet paper, bottles, wrappers, and bags. The toilet paper I realized was probably used for no more than a minute, the bottles, maybe an hour, the wrappers, about thirty minutes, and the plastic bags, about thirty minutes- to an hour as well. I also saw a small disposable cup, big enough for one gulp. I realized that everything we use goes through an extensive process: cut trees or extract something irreplaceable or non-replenishable from the environment, process it, manufacture it, market it, all so we can use most of it for less than a minute. I'm sure there's more steps in between the one's that I mentioned. According to a cost-benefit analysis, the cost is so much more than the benefit, I would say a thousand times more, but that's just a wild guess. Remembering the film "No Impact Man" Colin Beavan mentions something about us needing trees to trap carbon dioxide but instead we use it for toilet paper. We compromise our health, the sustainability of our environment, and the survival of future human civilizations all so we can wipe our butts for two minutes. Surely this does not mean we must neglect our hygiene but that we must find an alternative that is harmless to the environment. I also discovered that it is difficult to not make trash because just about EVERYTHING is packaged in plastic or cardboard. I made hamburger helper today, there was plastic from the meat package, cardboard from the hamburger helper box, plastic that contained the macaroni, and paper that contained the cheese mix. There was four pieces of trash that was made just so I could make a ten minute meal that I would probably not finish completely and I would end up throwing away the left overs. Actually, that's exactly what happened. And that was just dinner, what about breakfast and lunch? and i'm not the only person who needs to be fed, I have three other family members who also ate their own meals and made their own trash. It seems as if to not make trash, you can't eat, go to the bathroom, do your homework, or engage in any activity that requires the use of paper or synthetic materials.