Reference no: EM133501882

Problem: 24 Hour Food Waste Reflection

This will be a post mixing personal reflection with research. Keep a log of your food waste for one day. That is, pay attention at each eating and drinking occasion through a 24-hour period to what goes into the garbage or recycling (or even compost) bin. Just like a 24-hour recall for food intake, keep track for yourself the following in a Word or Excel document:

A. Note the eating occasion (snack, meal, drink) and time of day.

B. Note what food was wasted (try to describe it as a percentage of the food and/or beverage you had in front of you to eat as well as what types of food or beverage were wasted).

C. Note what other waste was created. This will include food packaging (boxes, plastic wrappers, cups, plates, cutlery, napkins, trays...anything that makes its way to the garbage, recycling, or compost bin).

D. Finally, note across all eating occasions how often you ended up throwing away any food as well as any non-food waste. Also, note when leftovers were saved for later consumption. For example, let's say you had 9 eating and drinking occasions throughout the day, including 3 meals, 2 snacks, a dessert, and 2 individual beverages. You might find that at only 2 eating occasions, you walked away from eating or drinking something with no food or beverage waste to get rid of. One 1 occasion, you had leftovers you saved, and 6 occasions resulted in food waste, non-food waste, or both.

In 300 or so words, write about your experience keeping this log. Was it eye-opening or what you expected? Are you concerned about the waste you produce or is it not concerning? Reflect on this experience in the context of what we've discussed related to food and sustainability thus far by relating it to information from an article you read on the topic for this course.