Nate's Trash from Sep. 15th 2014: Obligatory Waste

Over all I don't accumulate too much trash from one day to the next and that which I do is either food related trash or paper towels in school bathrooms after washing my hands but those aren't visually documented because taking a camera into a bathroom or leaving a bathroom with paper seem  weird and may seem even more odd than photographing my paper plate at lunch. I realize too that in thinking in a general sense I deal also with a lot of paper waste as it related to school assignments and general "paper work". I did not photograph my first to trash items and so I decided to draw them but in attempts to reduce the paper waste created I draw them on the iPad digitally. Drawing is something that as an artist I have to decide to look at what constitutes waste and what constitutes utilized resources. That is an ongoing mental dialogue that deal predominantly on a circumstantial basis. Scrapped doodles will likely appear in the waste basket too come.

However one thing that this journey has also brought about for me to realize is both the amount of "obligatory waste", but also the amount of non-organic waste generally corrolates to the health of the food. The paper bowl and unfinished cake frosting was an example of the "obligatory waste" I mentioned previously. It was Leo's birthday in the dorms and so cake was served at dinner in papaer plates. It is too late to opt for a real plate, and it is seemingly rude to refuse cake (also I do like the cake part of cake), however the frosting is generally a bit much and excessive in  quantity. For example this specific cake had 3D balloons made out of mounts of icing (one of which I received). Also too the muffin wrapper falls into this category. At home I have silicone muffin wrappers that are reusable and you do not throw away, but again I am fed by a cafeteria. The secon point that came to mind was th health in regards to packaging. A plastic yogurt container with a foil lid is a lot of waste for such a small portion... And while it is not the most egregious offense of added sugars and processing it does go to show that often the adition of packaging of food signifies that it is less basic and organic at least and one might even argue it is less healthy. Similarly to those who suggest purchasing food from the farthest edges of super markets because there are less preservatives. The apple core is an example of a waste created but that can break down and is a natural waste reflecting in it that natural origins of the food that so happens to be healthy hence the "apple a day" phrase so often used.

Over all this experiment has greatly set into motion the gears of my mind on the topic of waste and assessing just how much and what kinds I produce, and also what that must mean about how I live.