50 Facts

For my 50 Facts presentation, I chose fact 45: “American discard 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour. That’s enough bottles to reach all the way to the moon every three weeks.” I thought it would be interesting to not only talk about the difference in recycling mentalities that each of us holds, but also to see what everyone thought about the view of America as being a wasteful society. Obviously, this last statement is really not debatable, we waste more than any other country, but the different views of how wasteful and what implications this has upon the rest of the world (if any), both today and in the future, are debatable.

In my topic talk (calling it a presentation seems a bit of a misnomer as it was so laid-back), I also chose to include a story from Wired Magazine’s November 2008 issue. The story first talked about the latest agricultural technology, but it went on to focus on actual eating habits, preferences and statistics of different countries, continents around the world. I spoke of how the United States having the largest caloric intake per person, per day, was a bad thing because it showed what a truly wasteful society we have become. If we don’t need all of these calories to survive, then any extra are being wasted. My argument that decreasing the United States’ average daily caloric intake would create less demand for food imports, thus decreasing world demand. Principles of the concept of supply and demand indicate that it was a correct assumption on my part to think that lowering demand would then also lower the price. Supply and demand works on the idea of a system that when demand is high, supply is lower than demand and price is high. When demand is low, supply is greater than demand and price us low. So, if the United States did stop purchasing certain food products, then it would subsequently make those food products cheaper to other countries.

I thought the discussion went well, but I am kind of sad that there wasn’t more time left for my topic. I feel like there was still a lot to be said about this topic and not even everyone in the class had a chance to express their opinions. Also, had I not been so stressed abut the test I was taking immediately following the lunch meeting, I feel like my topic talk might have gone much more smoothly and I would have been able to slow myself down and articulate my ideas and concepts in a clearer manner. It was one of those times where you have everything in your head that you want to say, but you only end up focusing on about one-quarter of those things. I definitely would like to see if anyone has any ideas about our wasteful society and how we might be forced to change due to our current economic situation. Some people skimp in certain areas of spending during times of economic hardship. This time, however, it seems that more and more people are looking to fast food and stores like Wal-Mart to supply them with cheap food and other items. Both of these businesses operate within the upper echelon of most wasteful companies. So, even though we may be looking to cheaper places to fulfill necessities, we are increasingly looking to them even for clothes.

I just wanted to talk about waste in general, in relation to the United States specifically. I feel like the issue of waste doesn’t just extend to recycling, so bringing in more was essential to my viewpoint of the issue.

That's all folks,
Brady