Crappy Convenience Store Sandwiches and Food Packaging

Crappy Convenience Store Sandwiches and Food Packaging

I walked in 7-11 in the morning, hungry and sleepy. I grabbed a cold egg-lettuce sandwich from the shelve, and felt disgusted for the rest of the morning.

Convenience store sandwiches are always crap, aren't they? Sloppy, cold, and too much mayo - recipe for disaster. They are like the last option before a early morning lecture: either that or starving for two hours before getting to lunch. For the same price of one crappy sandwich, one can buy a loaf of fresh-baked bread, a head of beautiful crunchy lettuce and some tasty chicken eggs. And all of that, come without excessive packaging.

One can say the packaging of those 7-11 sandwiches is not that bad: It's mostly paper and single layered. Almost nothing comparing to those multi-flavored potato crisp packs which are literally big plastic packs over smaller plastic packs. But still, you can not get any extra use out of a sandwich package after you tear it open: it is designed for convenience- in another word, use once and throw away. And you don't throw them in household recycle bins - no no no. Because you will be most likely be on the street or somewhere public while you are eating these awfully sandwiches, the packages are gonna end up in one of the street bins - poorly recycled in the first place. 

 

Food packaging is one of the major sources of waste in food waste streams. And reclaiming these packaging waste is proven to be difficult because they are often found in a mixture of general waste and organic waste.

As individuals, reduce food packaging is the first step of building a more sustainable future. Take the time, make your own sandwiches! Use a PVC container, they are wonderful creations and can literally last you for years. It's a start, right?

Reference: 

https://www.environment.gov.au/system/files/resources/128a21f0-5f82-4a7d-b49c-ed0d2f6630c7/files/food-waste.pdf

Image credit:

https://doesthisfontmakemelookfat.com/2014/09/

Big Bad Multinationals: Money-driven sustainable thinking

Big Bad Multinationals: Money-driven sustainable thinking

If you are an sci-fi action movie fun like me, you will notice that almost in every movie, if there is a multinational company with infinite power and resources, it usually turns out to be controlled by the villains. This plot may sound familiar to many of you: a scientist is found dead in his/her lab, with the technology of providing infinite power for mankind stolen. And the bad guys are working for a big oil company, who don't want this technology to be revealed to the world.

However, this stereotype is challenged by four big players in current global market since they shifted their business strategies to focus on sustainable development in the past year: Novelis, Fibria, Syngeta and Starbucks.

Novelis is one of the major scourers for aluminum in global market. It changes it core business focus from aluminum mining to aluminum recycling, in order to pursue a more sustainable future for the business.

The core of Fibria's business is paper products. Nowadays, it starts to shifting its business strategy to use its forest assets in a sustainable way.

Starbuck, as the home and sanctuary for hipsters, has been seeking to differentiate itself from the other coffee shop but promoting the idea of green building.

Agriculture based business Syngenta has spent more time on recovering extra nutrients from the land and help their customers to get more yields.

The most amazing fact is that these companies did not do this just for helping mankind or anything noble like that. They did it because it helps them to secure more earnings in the future. The notion of the greatest selfish-less act comes from the greatest selfishness is truly the only way to approach the matter of building a sustainable future. Praise and good will only can not convince stakeholders to pursue a sustainable strategy, but cold hard cash can
.

Reference:

http://www.sustainability.com/blog/four-multinationals-shifting-their-business-models-for-sustainability#.V1E7LJx96Uk

Image Credit:
http://soul-sanctuaries.com/whats-your-relationship-with-money/

Potato Lives Matter!

Potato Lives Matter! 

Have you ever seen a weird looking potato in one of your local supermarket? No, I am not talking about these slightly small or bigger ones with minor deform. I am talking about the real abominations, the real freaks of nature, the monstrosities who dares to call themselves potatoes... You haven't, have you. Our kind lords of food industry mercifully get rid of all those weird-looking potatoes beforehand so we don't have to suffer the pain of watching such as ugly creature presented on our shelves. How gracious of them! Praise the food industry! Praise the lords!

But do you know? The weird looking ones are just as delicious as their 'normal' brethren. In Australia, only 50% of the fresh produce coming from agriculture will make it through processing and get to the retailing stage. The other half is wasted because of failure of meeting industry standard in size, shape, weight and colour. They are mostly still perfectly edible, and potentially more accessible because they can be sold at a cheaper price than regular food.

There are attempts of selling these 'ugly' food by large cooperation as well as local market. For example, a organization called Secondbite dedicates itself in re-distributing surplus food to people in needs. They take donations from farmers, markets, retailers and donate them to homeless, families under poverty, indigenous families and so on.

However, we could always do more as individuals to salvage food waste. Starting by not just picking the good-looking potatoes on the shelves, we can give some love to the odd ones. Don't judge them by the looks, right?

Reference:
http://secondbite.org/
http://eprints.qut.edu.au/68196/
Image Credit:
http://www.cheshirefarmchips.co.uk/tag/weird/

Perks of being lazy: Green tips for laundry hater

Perks of being lazy: Green tips for laundry hater

Laundries are the worst, aren't they? Especially for a single male students living in a 15 sqm rental room. There is always a pile of semi-worn cloth lying around somewhere in my room.  They don't smell, but still not fresh enough for me to want to wear it. And because I am lazy, proudly so, I don't want wash them either. So here they are, hanging off my bed, piling up in my laundry basket and being forgotten by the world of living.

However, it strikes me one day that because I am to lazy to do laundry often, a enormous amount of water can be saved and less pollutant coming from all the chemical we use to wash our cloth will be released to our water system. It is a rather bizarre notion to justify my own laziness but there might just be a slight truth to all of this.

 

According to Australian Bureau of Statics, average household waster consumption for Australian familes in 2003 was 103kL of water per person, and a large amount of that number was contributed by laundry. And a research on washing machines suggests that some of the dated models (still commonly usedin many households) requires more than 100L volume of water (perfectly drinkable) to deal with one load. A bottle of water is 550ml - half a litre, and we pay 3 bucks for it. 

If 1000 families can skip laundry once for a week, that can save 5,000,000 L of clean water. And the price is only to endure wearing semi-clean, perfectly good clothes for a couple of days. Sounds like a bargain doesn't it?

Reference: 

http://www.home-water-works.org/indoor-use/clothes-washer

http://www.hunterwater.com.au/Save-Water/Water-Usage-Calculator.aspx

http://thegreenists.com/category/clothes

Image credit:

http://listsurge.com/30-clever-coolest-laundry-room-ideas/