Trash Free School Essay Sample

đź“ŚCategory: Education, Environment, Food, School
đź“ŚWords: 730
đź“ŚPages: 3
đź“ŚPublished: 19 June 2022

As stated by Charles Moore “Only we humans make trash that nature can’t digest”, even at school lunches. An everyday school lunch may include your sandwich in a plastic bag, a juice pouch, a bag of chips along with your plastic water bottle notwithstanding any disposable utensils or napkins. Almost every item on this list leaves trash, yet we pay the high price it demands for its ease of use. Clearly students need to go trash free at lunch thereby reducing their plastic waste while also allowing them to save money and make better health choices, shaping well rounded individuals.

First, Going trash free at school will be a great financial decision students can make for long term savings. “ By bringing water or juice in a disposable plastic bottle or pouch, choose a refillable bottle.” (Pg#2) By using  refillable  containers and bottles we can save a lot of money. The cost of these small containers adds up over time especially in areas where tap water is free, all you will need to do is pay for one refillable bottle. Conversely in areas where tap water isn't the safest a small filter in addition to the refillable bottle will overtime pay for itself, then start saving students money. Also “Instead of  eating foods that come prepackaged in individual servings, like mini bags of  chips and small containers of yogurt, buy in bulk. Then divide food into single servings yourself.” (pg#2) Moreover manufacturers often increase their prices when items are individually packaged. As a result you pay extra for a portion that may be available cheaper in bulk. In addition you are also paying for a piece of plastic that will be thrown immediately after use. Instead buying a larger quantity then making your own portions will give students more control on how little or more they want to eat while utilizing their reusable containers.

Secondly, the plastic packaging which is trash can cause serious health problems overtime, while the food itself has added preservatives and other unknown substances that aren’t healthy. According to Health.Harvard.edu “Some of these chemicals have been linked to health problems such as metabolic disorders (including obesity) and reduced fertility.” Surely taking  a little time to make food in reusable containers can help make a change to people’s health. Bringing lunch from home fills two needs with one deed, reducing trash and making people healthier. Also as reported by Walden.edu some countries have banned Bisphenol A (BPA) which is used to create clear plastic that can abnormally affect the endocrine system. Besides, children are smaller, so their "dose" of any given chemical ends up being higher. Avoiding food with plastic and lessening preservatives can help students throughout their life. It takes the same amount of time to put a sandwich in a glass or silicone container that it would to put it in plastic and while individually wrapped snacks are easy to grab, making  snacks cuts down the trash while making the snacks customizable to a person’s taste and allows people to know actually know what all the ingredients are.

Last but not the least, going trash free reduces people’s carbon footprint on the environment and as students who will be living in this world it is our responsibility to take care of it. According to Blog.epa.gov “ just one average-size middle school creates over 40,000 pounds of lunch waste a year.” Clearly we are producing a huge amount of trash, often in the form of disposable utensils like spoons and straws, napkins, bottles, containers of yogurt or bags of chips. These items may seem small but they pile up and at the end of the year we may be responsible for contributing up to 40,000 pounds of trash yearly to landfills or the oceans. As stated by EPA.gov “The most effective way to reduce waste is to not create it in the first place.” A trash free lunch would eliminate the need to then spend energy to even recycle, further cutting down our carbon footprint. Of course everyone agrees that we need to do something about climate change but in actual day to day life we often fail to implement. By not producing trash during our daily lunches we can make our contribution to fight climate change and secure a better planet for our future.

Indeed students need to stop producing trash during lunches to cut down on expenses, scale down plastic waste while also making better health choices.These changes are easily achievable by making a few swaps and proactively thinking about the consequences of our actions.At the end of the day, today's students shape tomorrow's world with an important choice to make. Will we wait for tomorrow or be free of trash today?

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