Food waste rising through coronavirus pandemic

I read an article published by the National Geographic written by Elizabeth Royte discussing how people are still wasting any enormous amount of food every day and these facts are from that article which will have the link below. 

Anyways, the response of the coronavirus has been people hoarding groceries and restaurants closing, which means more people are cooking at home. The biggest source of food waste in the United States is households, where leftovers go bad and are thrown away, milk spoils, and produce wilts. Nervous grocery hoarders are starting to understand they can't eat all the food they have bought, so food is going to waste when grocery stores are empty, and some can't even buy chicken. Even though waste at restaurants are slowing down due to the closures, it's likely to rise for restaurants who are shifting to only take-out. 

“This is a period of colossal readjustment,” says Andrew Shakman, founder of LeanPath, which develops technology to reduce waste in the food-service industry. “Food waste per meal tends to increase for our customers when their sales volumes are lower, so we expect operations that are running at partial speed to become more wasteful per meal served.” This quote is from the National Geographic article. 

So, what can be done? People who are cooking at home need to learn how to utilize all their groceries by keeping things organized or learning new ways to cook leftovers. Also, people need to understand food date labels, there's no reason to throw out food after its "best-before" date. 

Learning these new skills to maintain low food waste in a household is something that should be carried out throughout a lifetime, not just during the coronavirus pandemic. Hopefully, the things we learn during these times can be continued after this is all over. People are beginning to see the effects of food waste and food insecurity which will hopefully shift people into living a more sustainable lifestyle.

How coronavirus impacts the environment

Over the past three weeks, the only thing people have heard about is the coronavirus pandemic that is sweeping the world causing countries and businesses to shut down in order to contain the virus. The coronavirus has stopped air and ground travel in regions around the world, which is actually reducing carbon emissions in the atmosphere. Without factories and travel, the pollution levels around the world have been decreasing.

Even though the reduction in emissions is helping reduce pollution, it's not enough to shift climate change. In other points of history, economic slowdowns such as WW2 and the Great Depression, these events have made slight changes in emissions but haven't changed the overall trend.

As economic activity has slowed, the air quality in Europe and China has been temporarily improved, finally China can see blue skies. The way millions of people have changed their daily lives shows how it's possible to do help climate change. Some officials believe the pollution reduction in China has saved more lives than the coronavirus has taken. According to a Stanford scientist, the reduction in air pollution have helped saved over 77,000 lives in China either under the age of five or over 70.

The coronavirus is scary due to the unknown and how it spreads, people are going to grocery stores to stock up on food and toilet paper which has brought up another environmental issue of wasting food or resources. Due to the pandemic, the population is more aware that it's important to not waste food or resources because supplies are low more people are becoming self-aware of how much they waste.

The virus is forcing us to change the way we live our lives, we can't just go to the grocery store and expect everything to be stocked, it's forcing everyone to look at how they live their lives and forces them to make changes in order to help the environment by reducing waste and pollution.

This is an opportunity to act and drastically change the way we live our lives in order to help the environment. There are lessons to be learned socially we can easily change and it can have great health benefits. Improving air quality and reducing pollution will enhance everyone's life.

[INFOGRAPHIC] Top Worst Products for the Environment

The list above are the top 5 worst products for the environment that college students use the most in their everyday routine. College students must be educated about the consequences of each decision they make. For example, if college students understood how bad single use razors are for the environment they would switch to a reusable durable razor that will last years. 

Plastic bags are recognized for being bad for the environment, but it's estimated between 500 billion to one trillion are used world wide. Stop using plastic bags and invest in a durable re-usable grocery bag. 

How often do you buy a coffee on the go? Paper coffee cups are bad for the environment and the quickest solution is to invest in a reusable travel coffee mug. Some stores reduce the cost of the coffee when customers bring in a reusable mug too!

Plastic water bottles are a big problem in the pollution around the world. 1,500 plastic water bottles are consumed every second in the United States. Investing in a reusable water bottle will keep the drink more cold and reduce your carbon footprint. 

Batteries can be dangerous to the environment due to the chemicals that are used to make them. Also, mining for these resources is terrible for the environment. A battery contains one or more of the following metals: lead, zinc, mercury, lithium, as well as acids. 

Disposable razors are made with blades from cheap steel and handles made from cheap plastic. Two billion disposable razors are discarded in the United States each year. Since most of it can't be reused they are placed into landfills. 

The simple solution for most of these products is to invest in a reusable product that can be used for years and years. Single use and disposable products are detrimental to the environment since none of the product can be recycled, it ends up in the landfill. 

Tips to Help College Students Go Green

The term "Going Green" is similar to living a sustainable life, as in it's a lifestyle that in environmentally friendly and make conscious decisions to help the environment. Practicing more eco-friendly decisions will result in changes of habits. When changing one's lifestyle to a more green one, each student should think about where their food is coming from and how much trash he or she produces in a typical week.

Here are some tips to help student's change their lifestyle to help the environment:

Ride a bike around campus. Rather than driving a car around campus for a short distance, invest in a bike since it'll keep the rider in better physical shape while reducing carbon emissions. Riding bikes can be a fun hobby which can help propel more eco-friendly practices in someone's daily routine.

Unplug electronics when not using them. This tip helps reduce the amount of energy used in dorm rooms. Today, college students bring several electronic devices and all have different chargers that often stay plugged in throughout the whole semester, be mindful and unplug when not in use. Also, use energy saving light bulbs in dorm rooms.

Place plants in dorm room. Rather than buying aerosol air fresheners, use plants to improve air quality in the dorm rooms.

Use reusable water bottle. Instead of buying large cases of plastic water bottles where the plastic bottles get piled up in the dorm room, use a reusable water bottle. It keeps your water cool throughout the day and reduces the amount of waste someone produces in a week. 

Recycle! Most college campuses offer recycling in the on-campus living, it's important to properly recycle.

Avoid wasting water. Turn off water when brushing teeth rather than running it the whole time. Be mindful of the length of showers, try to reduce time.

These are some simple tips that anyone can put into affect tomorrow. Small changes will result in a large impact in the environment's health. It doesn't have to be a major change in someone's life to start to live a green life, people just have to take it one day at a time.

(Picture from Princeton Review)