Consumerism
We currently live in a society in which consumption of goods is continually increasing and is economically desirable. Consumption of goods may make us feel happy and perhaps fulfilled, but it comes with a cost of waste. This waste includes plastic packaging and wrapping, which take too long (10 to 1000 years) to decompose and harms the environment. In addition, products/goods themselves are wasted and thrown out as well. Food, furniture, and clothing etc. are often tossed out even when they are still in good condition. Food, especially, is something that is thrown away and wasted much too often. This leads to the next problem of Food Waste.
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Food Waste
Researchers believe as much as forty percent of all the food produced in the United States is never eaten. This is a huge problem because there are people all around the world in poverty, going hungry, while society is wasting an inconceivable amount of food that could be distributed to those in need. According to the UN, “1.3 billion tons of food is wasted every year while almost 1 billion people go undernourished and another 1 billion go hungry.” The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that the typical American family throws out approximately $1,600 worth of food every year. This much perfectly, good food being wasted should be intolerable. This food goes into dumpsters, where freegans can dumpster dive and find lots of food, and eventually landfills, causing many environmental problems.
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Landfill Emissions
The large amounts of food and produce that go to landfills cause problems of emissions. As food gets dumped into landfills, the lack of oxygen causes the food to take longer to decompose it and it will release methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. Some of the methane gas released from landfills will be captured and converted into energy, but most of it will go into the atmosphere. Since methane is roughly thirty times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, it will greatly contribute to trapping heat inside the earth’s atmosphere, causing climate change. Climate change will cause further negative consequences for the entire planet. Therefore, food waste causes a whole chain of negative consequences to occur, which is why society must work towards a Freeganism lifestyle in order to minimize participation in consumerism and waste.
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