Poll of the Day > Do you ever feel concerned about how wasteful society is?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I get pretty aggravated sometimes about how wasteful we are. Like when I see stuff in the news about Christmas tree shortages, who cares? Christmas trees are pointless and wasteful. Fireworks are another one that annoy me. If you've seen one fireworks show you've seen them all, and they really aren't that interesting. I also can't stand seeing people drive these big-ass trucks knowing that they probably pretty much never use them to haul things.

Am I just being a bitter man who hates fun? I'm okay with having cultural traditions and people enjoying luxuries, and I'm certainly guilty of things that some would find wasteful, but it tends to feel so excessive to me lately

I feel annoyed when people just don't care (like littering, for instance). Greater good, so pick it up or else *pow* in the teeth!
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Littering sucks, but it's an easy target for ire. I imagine that a lot of socially acceptable forms of waste are far more destructive. Or at least more consistently destructive. Litter has a very high volume, but it's all so spread out. It kind of depends on where the litter is; in bodies of water and delicate ecosystems is very bad, but common litter on the side of the road or on a sidewalk, where there isn't much wildlife to begin with, doesn't seem to me like it's harming that much.

reminds me of the crying indian commercial

Rockies posted...

Littering sucks, but it's an easy target for ire. I imagine that a lot of socially acceptable forms of waste are far more destructive. Or at least more consistently destructive. Litter has a very high volume, but it's all so spread out. It kind of depends on where the litter is; in bodies of water and delicate ecosystems is very bad, but common litter on the side of the road or on a sidewalk, where there isn't much wildlife to begin with, doesn't seem to me like it's harming that much.

But it all ends up somewhere. My buddy found a Japanese water bottle washed up on the shore near here. I get your point though, it's noticeable and therefore most people deem it unacceptable, but throwing out billions in food (which also wastes a lot in the overproduction of it too) is exempt.
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Yeah I mean it's better to clean up whatever litter you can before it can drift to some place where it might do more harm. Wasted food is a shame but at least it decays... well, some of it. Maybe not stuff like McDonald's french fries.

And speaking of McDonald's, the paper inserts that they (and other restaurants) put in the trays are another one that bugs me. Do you really need to advertise the restaurant I'm already patronizing?

I know... It's like when I see an ad telling me to subscribe to a channel on TV, but it's the one I'm already watching. Cool, thanks, I think I've got it...
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My roommate used to toss leftovers like nobody's business. Two days old? Trash. Been out on the counter for a few hours? Gone.
Drove me nuts
Now I am in charge of the leftovers.
A duty I am proud of
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I used to live with a guy that would freaking collect leftovers. Some weeks he'd go out to dinner with people like every night, and inevitably have leftovers but forget about them.

I'm pretty good about eating leftovers specifically, but I tend to waste a lot of food. Kind of hard though when it spoils.

Rockies posted...

I get pretty aggravated sometimes about how wasteful we are. Like when I see stuff in the news about Christmas tree shortages, who cares? Christmas trees are pointless and wasteful. Fireworks are another one that annoy me. If you've seen one fireworks show you've seen them all, and they really aren't that interesting. I also can't stand seeing people drive these big-ass trucks knowing that they probably pretty much never use them to haul things.

Am I just being a bitter man who hates fun? I'm okay with having cultural traditions and people enjoying luxuries, and I'm certainly guilty of things that some would find wasteful, but it tends to feel so excessive to me lately

Neither of which is a great example of waste, especially Christmas trees since the trees served no practical purpose in the first place. Waste is more like throwing something out with minor damage when you could repair it. And, to that extent, there is a lot of waste.

Japan has legends about objects which come to life after being possessed by a family for generations. Throughout Europe and North America in the past you'd have a similar sense of ownership. However, nowadays things are just tossed and it's rare for anything to last more than a generation or two. An antique is at most something that your grandparent might have bought, not something that they got from their grandparent who got it from their grandparent who swindled it from a traveler or some similar story.
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Sometimes I do. It definitely annoys me but I know I'm not perfect about it either. I certainly try though and it annoys me when others won't even though it takes no extra time. Just turning the power off on something when you won't be there using it for hours. Kinda like common curtest really.
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nope
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sometimes, I just let the faucet go while I'm doing other stuff because I might need water and don't want to touch the handle
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There are certain aspects that bother me, like when there was the "How long do you shower for?" topic and lots of people were saying 30 minutes to an hour.

Zeus posted...

Neither of which is a great example of waste, especially Christmas trees since the trees served no practical purpose in the first place.

Except for the huge tracts of land that are used to farm Christmas trees, and of course the water and fertilizer/soil nutrients that go into raising them. Those trees don't come out of nowhere. Even if they are being harvested from an existing forest, that's disrupting the local ecosystem by removing a habitat and shaking up ground-level vegetation. All for a decoration that lasts 3-4 weeks tops before being thrown away.
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nesrtkfan posted...

reminds me of the crying indian commercial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvJ4_sa4gno
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The amount of food and water we waste in the States is bothersome to me and unfortunately some businesses can't do much about their leftover food due to the liabilities and laws involved. Hell, a coworker use to work in a market and told me they would purposely sabotage produce goods when throwing them away to discourage people from dumpster diving.

As for water, even in areas with regular rain I'd imagine it still takes effort to treat said water so just because there's an abundance of water in said area doesn't mean it was effortless to treat. There's also of course all the water we lose to leaks in our piping system across the States.

Not directly related but I recall back in college, a friend would always scoop a lot of tarter sauce for his fried fish but proceed to use only a quarter of it. It baffled me why he couldn't just scoop only what he needed and if he needed more, to just get more.

EDIT: I find it bizarre how we rate ourselves a first world country and yet hunger is still an issue in some areas despite the amount of food that goes to waste. Granted I am sure just because there is food to go around, that doesn't mean the logistics to get said food to those in need is available for free.
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Rockies posted...

Am I just being a bitter man who hates fun?

Yes
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adjl posted...

Zeus posted...

Neither of which is a great example of waste, especially Christmas trees since the trees served no practical purpose in the first place.

Except for the huge tracts of land that are used to farm Christmas trees, and of course the water and fertilizer/soil nutrients that go into raising them. Those trees don't come out of nowhere. Even if they are being harvested from an existing forest, that's disrupting the local ecosystem by removing a habitat and shaking up ground-level vegetation. All for a decoration that lasts 3-4 weeks tops before being thrown away.

I swear sometimes it's like Zeus tries to have bad opinions. He didn't even attempt to explain how fireworks were wasteful, either, despite claiming such

Every day. So many wasted resources used for manufacturing useless goods.
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Food industry wastes so much

shit the faucet is running rn and no one has even been in the kitchen for like 5 minutes
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InfestedAdam posted...

Granted I am sure just because there is food to go around, that doesn't mean the logistics to get said food to those in need is available for free.

Food Banks exist. Maybe you should consider a donation.

I was shocked just how much food is wasted at the Hospital I work at. It's not even a major one too, they just do special surgeries.

I told myself I'd never work at a food, or resturant job because the food-waste thing bugs me. Then I realized instead of just loading the inventory goods in the dry-storage (it was on the job posting) they wanted me to pack the patient nutrition rooms. So many tossed milks, no body seems to drink them anymore, and the free sandwiches we are forced to provide are not eaten too, same with pre-packed fresh apple-slices. I wish we chould donate a box each month to a shelter.
Boss says it's too much work. Argh. Makes me sick for humanity.

Every time I order a sandwich from somewhere, the food gets packaged in like 30 pieces of paper, its kind of ridiculous how wasteful it is.
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helIy posted...

shit the faucet is running rn and no one has even been in the kitchen for like 5 minutes

youre not funny and honestly just an obese pile of shit
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Verte_Tunic posted...

Boss says it's too much work. Argh. Makes me sick for humanity.

I'd blame lawyers. A tiny carton of milk that's been lingering at room temperature most of the day could be a liability.

So many tossed milks, no body seems to drink them anymore, and the free sandwiches we are forced to provide are not eaten too, same with pre-packed fresh apple-slices.

If you really want some apoplexy today, go look up school lunches, where kids are compelled to take things they don't want, but aren't compelled to actually consume them. May as well place the trashcan at the end of the lunch line itself, just to save time.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/school-lunch-fruits-and-veggies-often-tossed-in-trash-study-finds/

We could probably do a much better job managing food waste, but that wasn't exactly what I had in mind with this topic. I'm talking about things that are knowingly, negligently, and sometimes even purposely wasteful. Food waste to some degree is inevitable because food doesn't last forever. It's not like a restaurant can just pass off the rest of an uneaten meal to another person.

When I've lived by myself I'd always feel bad about wasting a lot of food, but what can you really do when the minimum quantities of some items are so small for one person to go through before they spoil? I try to freeze what I can, but that doesn't work for everything.

I don't see how trees or fireworks are wasteful. I also don't have an issue with trucks since people can buy what they want with their money. What I don't like is how little recycling we do. I know we've come a long way, but there's still plenty more to go.
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sometimes. but then I realize there isn't much I can do about aside from trying to not add to it myself. i'm the type of guy who tends to not be overly concerned with things I realize I have no control over.

now say if i'm eating outside and I can't finish my food, I won't throw it in a trash can, that I will throw on the ground, i'd rather see some animal eat my wasted food than it go in the trash. as far as eating inside and at home, i'll generally give it to my dogs depending on what it is. I do my best to not let food go to waste.
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Questionmarktarius posted...

InfestedAdam posted...

Granted I am sure just because there is food to go around, that doesn't mean the logistics to get said food to those in need is available for free.

Food Banks exist. Maybe you should consider a donation.

Sorry, I meant taking leftover/unsold food on a grander scale from restaurants or wholesale food warehouses to said food banks/donations center.

I have read of services that go about and pick up said leftover/unsold food from restaurants, markets, or warehouses but I'd imagine all of this is done through just that, volunteers or small organizations. Though you bring up a good point, said organizations relies on volunteers or donations to obtain said food whether from buying it themselves or to go pickup.
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What kinda stinker doesn't enjoy fireworks?

Do I think about societal waste? All the time (and that is part of why I have changed my lifestyle to minimize environmental impact as much as I am able to).

Just think about your regular grocery store. Thats one store of several in an area. That one store has hundreds (if not thousands) of single use plastic containers for convenience for things like salad, fruits, pasta, etc. Meat is often sold on unrecyclable styrofoam trays. There are so many single serve things sold in plastic clamshells, plastic bottles, plastic everything and even if it is recycled in the end, it still requires a lot of resources to make that material and repurpose it.

And thats just some of the waste from one kind of store in one small area--it doesn't even touch on the massive food waste going on.

What about things like novelty plastic items people buy and use once or twice? Not only are they using petroleum, theyve been shipped on heavily polluting cargo ships.

Society as a wholeand especially Americais built to be cheap and disposable with no regard to the future and its depressing as fuck to think about the massive heaps of waste (that will outlast our species and many more) all generated for the sake of convenience.
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XlaxJynx007 posted...

I don't see how trees or fireworks are wasteful. I also don't have an issue with trucks since people can buy what they want with their money. What I don't like is how little recycling we do. I know we've come a long way, but there's still plenty more to go.

I think adjl covered Christmas trees pretty well. As for fireworks... pollution, litter from the scraps leftover, using fuel and explosives that could have more practical applications, causing pets to freak out. Maybe not all things that are "waste" in the most literal sense, but wasteful as in I question if the benefits are worth the cost.

People can buy what they want with their money? Wow, great argument. Isn't that kind of a tacit admission that it's wasteful? You're basically claiming people buy it "Just because", not for any actual practical reason.

Doctor Foxx posted...

Do I think about societal waste? All the time (and that is part of why I have changed my lifestyle to minimize environmental impact as much as I am able to).

Just think about your regular grocery store. Thats one store of several in an area. That one store has hundreds (if not thousands) of single use plastic containers for convenience for things like salad, fruits, pasta, etc. Meat is often sold on unrecyclable styrofoam trays. There are so many single serve things sold in plastic clamshells, plastic bottles, plastic everything and even if it is recycled in the end, it still requires a lot of resources to make that material and repurpose it.

And thats just some of the waste from one kind of store in one small area--it doesn't even touch on the massive food waste going on.

What about things like novelty plastic items people buy and use once or twice? Not only are they using petroleum, theyve been shipped on heavily polluting cargo ships.

Society as a wholeand especially Americais built to be cheap and disposable with no regard to the future and its depressing as fuck to think about the massive heaps of waste (that will outlast our species and many more) all generated for the sake of convenience.

we are terrible at foresight.
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I don't get why people buy live Christmas trees when artificial ones are better and can be reused for years and years.
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No, because I want society to be burnt to the ground, and the quickest way to do that is to evaporate all of our natural resources so that we can no longer survive.
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Dikitain posted...

No, because I want society to be burnt to the ground, and the quickest way to do that is to evaporate all of our natural resources so that we can no longer survive.

quickest way would be to nuke everything, but good luck getting that to happen. show I watched said we didn't have enough nukes to literally destroy the earth, but destroying everything on the surface was possible.
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DirtBasedSoap posted...

we are terrible at foresight.

Dude. it was not like this when i was growing up, not to the same extent. I don't know when it happened exactly, it feels like the time that bottled water became the norm for many people. but this plastic wasteland issue is only getting worse day by day. I've flat-out stopped buying a number of things I enjoy because of the plastic involved. Like they didn't have bulk mushrooms the other day and I wasn't going to buy a plastic tray of mushrooms because what the fuck really is it necessary? it is not.
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Dikitain posted...

No, because I want society to be burnt to the ground, and the quickest way to do that is to evaporate all of our natural resources so that we can no longer survive.

How about we learn from our mistakes and improve ourselves instead? It's not that difficult.
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Bottled water is a huge fucking waste. Maybe a necessity in some places without potable tap water, but I hate how selling bottled water at restaurants has become a thing. Besides the waste of resources on plastic, it's just dumb when you can get water from their soda fountain for free.

SunWuKung420 posted...

Dikitain posted...

No, because I want society to be burnt to the ground, and the quickest way to do that is to evaporate all of our natural resources so that we can no longer survive.

How about we learn from our mistakes and improve ourselves instead? It's not that difficult.

Nah, fuck that. Everything should just die. We are irredeemable.
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Doctor Foxx posted...

DirtBasedSoap posted...

we are terrible at foresight.

Dude. it was not like this when i was growing up, not to the same extent. I don't know when it happened exactly, it feels like the time that bottled water became the norm for many people. but this plastic wasteland issue is only getting worse day by day. I've flat-out stopped buying a number of things I enjoy because of the plastic involved. Like they didn't have bulk mushrooms the other day and I wasn't going to buy a plastic tray of mushrooms because what the fuck really is it necessary? it is not.

I wish they'd hurry up and get around to this type of plastic I heard about that degrades in 6 months. only draw back is some things stay in warehouses longer than that, but then we'd just have to change our system where things don't get plastic wrapped until right before they get put on shelves. I don't really give a fuck if the packaging looks pretty, so I wouldn't care if it was a hastily done job right before the stuff gets shipped to the stores.
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Rockies posted...

Bottled water is a huge fucking waste. Maybe a necessity in some places without potable tap water, but I hate how selling bottled water at restaurants has become a thing. Besides the waste of resources on plastic, it's just dumb when you can get water from their soda fountain for free.

those people need to get like water coolers and the big bottles then, the 500ml single serve bottles means someone is chucking 4 a day to drink 2 litres of water. it's nuts.

I also stopped buying any and all beverages that are in plastic containers
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SunWuKung420 posted...

Dikitain posted...

No, because I want society to be burnt to the ground, and the quickest way to do that is to evaporate all of our natural resources so that we can no longer survive.

How about we learn from our mistakes and improve ourselves instead? It's not that difficult.

Ha... the path we're on is completely irreversible. It's like an infant fighting a tidal wave. You'd have to get everyone on board with living like we did before the industrial revolution. Our best bet is to chuck tons of money toward research into deep exploration in hopes that we can go find an unlimited supply of planets to destroy

Doctor Foxx posted...

those people need to get like water coolers and the big bottles then, the 500ml single serve bottles means someone is chucking 4 a day to drink 2 litres of water. it's nuts.

I also stopped buying any and all beverages that are in plastic containers

I agree. I should have said near-necessity... I mean, they are somewhat justifiable, but there are certainly better alternatives.

What kind of beverages do you buy then? Just cans and glass bottles? All three are recyclable, does it just take more effort to recycle and make plastic? Actually I'm sure it takes more resources to make it, but I'm not sure about recycling for any of them

mooreandrew58 posted...

I wish they'd hurry up and get around to this type of plastic I heard about that degrades in 6 months.

Cellophane already exists. It's just that the fabrication isn't exactly eco-friendly.

only draw back is some things stay in warehouses longer than that

Most "degradable" plastics photo-degrade, which won't affect an item in a cardboard box inside a badly-lit warehouse. Once the robots take over warehousing, there won't even be a need for lighting at all

mooreandrew58 posted...

Doctor Foxx posted...

DirtBasedSoap posted...

we are terrible at foresight.

Dude. it was not like this when i was growing up, not to the same extent. I don't know when it happened exactly, it feels like the time that bottled water became the norm for many people. but this plastic wasteland issue is only getting worse day by day. I've flat-out stopped buying a number of things I enjoy because of the plastic involved. Like they didn't have bulk mushrooms the other day and I wasn't going to buy a plastic tray of mushrooms because what the fuck really is it necessary? it is not.

I wish they'd hurry up and get around to this type of plastic I heard about that degrades in 6 months. only draw back is some things stay in warehouses longer than that, but then we'd just have to change our system where things don't get plastic wrapped until right before they get put on shelves. I don't really give a fuck if the packaging looks pretty, so I wouldn't care if it was a hastily done job right before the stuff gets shipped to the stores.

agreed, it would be fantastic for items with shorter shelf lives such as produce or many refridgerated things that only last a few months. Even with production and transport it should still last long enough to get the food to the consumer even if it stays in their fridge for a bit.
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Doctor Foxx posted...

DirtBasedSoap posted...

we are terrible at foresight.

Dude. it was not like this when i was growing up, not to the same extent.

My supervisor and some mentors of mine have mentioned how a lot of products before were re-usable. Hell, even diapers.

Rockies posted...

Bottled water is a huge fucking waste. Maybe a necessity in some places without potable tap water, but I hate how selling bottled water at restaurants has become a thing. Besides the waste of resources on plastic, it's just dumb when you can get water from their soda fountain for free.

Those mini one-cup water bottles really bugs me. My Scouts use to buy cases of water bottles so one year I bought all of them re-usable hard plastic bottles for them to refill with using the larger 2.5 gallon containers. This year I am getting them stainless steel bottles for Christmas. Granted there are some folks who still uses the thin disposable water bottles but these folks keep re-using the same bottle.
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Rockies posted...

I agree. I should have said near-necessity... I mean, they are somewhat justifiable, but there are certainly better alternatives.

What kind of beverages do you buy then? Just cans and glass bottles? All three are recyclable, does it just take more effort to recycle and make plastic? Actually I'm sure it takes more resources to make it, but I'm not sure about recycling for any of them

I buy paper cartons (non-dairy milk, juices), glass, and the occasional cans. Plastic can only be recycled so many times and it is quite polluting to do so--we should simply not be using that much plastic to begin with. Most of it does not end up recycled.

http://www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org/pft/2015/8/23/the-myth-of-the-recycling-solution

In the U.S., 93 percent of plastics are NOT recovered (put in plastic recycling bins). These go straight to landfills. PET bottles that have a redemption value (cash value) fare a bit better; yet 62 percent are NOT recovered, according to EPA data.

How big is the problem? How much waste is generated by single-use plastic bottles?

Artist Chris Jordan offers the following visualizations. Imagine eight football fields covered thickly with plastic bottles. This is equivalent to the number of plastic beverage bottles discarded in the U.S. every five minutes. Now imagine a line of plastic water bottles going around the planet five times. This would be equivalent to the number of plastic bottles discarded every week in the U.S., just for water!

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