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We need to change our wasteful habits, starting at the Marketplace.
We’re clearly worried about the environment and our daily impact on it: Words like “green,” “organic,” “sustainability,” “footprint” and “impact” are everywhere. The question is whether these are practical efforts for change or mere words slapped on plastic benches to project a false aura of activity.
Either way, it’s not enough. We should encourage new modes of conduct to fight garbage build-up, climate change and other problems.
The Marketplace generates terrible amounts of waste. There are more than 17 large trash containers in use. But the Marketplace directors have improved their facilities over the years by composting and adding recyclable containers, so accusing them would be naïve.
Who then, is the Marketplace? You are. If you eat or work there, you are producing the material that gets thrown away everyday. The overflowing Marketplace trash receptacles are larger than your home trash bags and full of recyclable and nonrecyclable plastics. Nonrecyclable plastics do not have a proper recycling container available, so they should be recycled but aren’t. All of this waste is absurd just for convenience. We should at least recycle the containers that can be recycled.
UMaine and Green Campus Initiative, what about all those other plastics?
Single-use eating utensils degrade the environment for everyone. Since you are the Marketplace, I prescribe a treatment for this neurosis. We all should act on a personal commitment with discipline to challenge this destructive behavior because if you waste here, you’ll waste elsewhere.
Begin to look at your plates truthfully. You see a plastic soft drink cup. You fill it up once and you throw it away. Multiply this by the thousands on campus who act this way and you can imagine how much space they take up in landfills. Why not bring your own cup? Problem solved.
The only things we return to the Marketplace are trays and waste and recyclables, and of course they’ll recycle what brings in the cash return. I’d say you can even bring in your own plate, bowl, fork, spoon and knife. As for those brown napkins everywhere? Bring your own napkin. Not just another disposable one. Take the nice one from your grandmother’s dining table. This can be washed and reused. I can already see the trash bags disappearing.
If put into practice, this would be a beautiful change to our microcosm. Everyone would be using his or her favorite utensils and then walking by the trash instead of filling it. People would show off their utensils and they’d not only be truly “green,” they’d be conversation pieces too. Another result would be a change in consciousness toward other behavior and may initiate more inquiry into our “footprints.” Lots of other things could change as a result. Why limit this activity to the Marketplace? We don’t throw away our cooking utensils, so why should we have to throw away our eating utensils?
I don’t care about saving money. My concern is for the environment, waste of resources and the mental states that determine how we act. Just think: If everyone started bringing their own forks, there’d be thousands less to throw out. From there, it could spread and the habit of throwing something away everyday would begin to fade. We’d be less addicted to ease and comfort and more disciplined, with true concern for action for a better environment. We don’t need a catchphrase or a logo; we need to change our behavior, because the vast amount of waste we produce is disturbing.
Michael W. Gibson will be bringing his own utensils if he decides to eat at the Marketplace.
