One Week P.S.W.I Project (Personal Solid Waste Inventory)

For one week, (January 6th - January 13th) Our AP Environmental Science class participated in this weeklong personal solid waste inventory project. We were to collect any and all clean trash (excluding food and liquid waste) and throw it away in our provided trash bag and keep it until the end of the week. At the end of the week, we organized by category all of our trash on our table to take an inventory of what we threw away over the week.

The purpose of this project is to see how much trash a high schooler in America makes over the course of a week. We were able to compare our statistics to national averages. The average American throws away around 4.4 pounds of trash a DAY. This would mean 30.8 pounds a week, 136.4 pounds a month, and 1636.8 pounds of trash a YEAR for a single person! This project also brings into view the amount of one-use plastics and paper products that we as a society use and are normalized in many parts of the world.

1. Based on your observations of the solid waste materials displayed on all of the desks in the room, what type or category of municipal solid waste seems to be the most abundant?

From my observations, the most abundant type of trash I saw among most tables was single-use plastics. With my trash set on my table, a good portion of my trash was also plastics. Mostly consisting of food wrappers and plastic bottles. Among other tables in the room, this seemed similar to other people's piles of trash, as well as all of our trash bags being made of plastic.

2. Describe three significant and specific environmental impacts which are associated with the "life cycle" of the material type which you identified in question 1 above.

In question 1, I stated that plastic was the most abundant type of solid waste seen in this project. Plastics are the hardest and most expensive material to be recycled. Moreover, mostly none of today's plastics are properly recycled or even disposed of in an incinerator or sanitary landfill. Lots of today's plastics end up in our waterways and make their way to the ocean. Once in the ocean, the plastics are difficult to collect and properly dispose of. Mostly all of the plastics that end up in the oceans are collected in the great garbage patches in many of the world's oceans. Plastics take over 1000 years to decompose on their own on earth. Plastics that are littered in our lifetime will take 15 human lifetimes to finally decompose. Plastics that are not properly disposed of are a huge threat to our environment. With all of these plastics not properly recycled or taken care of, the impacts on wildlife are very abundant. With open landfills, plastics floating in the ocean, or plastics littering towns or cities, these plastics gain lots of attention from many animals in the wild. These animals think these colorful pieces of plastic are food and they consume these plastics. With animals especially birds near the ocean, many of them die from eating these plastics. These birds think they have a full stomach of food, but rather a stomach full of plastics that will end up killing them.

3. If your parents completed this same solid waste project, how do you think their inventories would differ, in terms of types and amounts of materials used in a week or in a year? In addition to your thoughts on this matter, please discuss this question with your parents and record their specific feedback regarding this point.

I think that their inventories would differ for a couple of reasons. With my parents being adults with many responsibilities, the amount and type of trash will be increased from more things that happen throughout the length of the project. Having to cook, clean, and manage their home, I know that my parents would have an increase in the trash if they participated in this assignment. After discussing this with my mom, she agreed with what I said. She also said that at her work she throws out a lot of paper and just daily everyday items as well. On top of cooking meals and her adult lifestyle, my mom said she would definitely be making more trash than I would in this project.

Post Project Reflection Questions

4. Did you alter your choices about foods eaten and/or items purchased/used during the last seven days, due to the type or amount of packaging? describe how your choices were modified during this assignment. If you did the bonus portion of the inventory, (the "carry"), was there ever a decision not to, for example, have a little orange juice, because it would mean needing to carry the large container around in your solid waste bag?

I did not see myself changing any of the foods that I ate. However, I did see myself staying away from making any online purchases and having to deal with the cardboard boxes and packaging. I also saw myself buying fewer snacks from places like JJs or any other store. I also caught myself accidentally throwing a couple of pieces of trash away that did not make it to my trash bag.

5. Discuss any aspects of this assignment that you found significant, meaningful, and/or worthwhile. Describe any experiences that you may have had relating to this inventory/carrying of your MSW around campus for seven days that you think are memorable.

I thought that this project was very unique and interesting. I was very interested to see the outcome of not only me but also our whole class and see what types of trash other people create over the span of a week. I did not find myself carrying my trash around campus during the week, but it was different for me to start keeping my trash with me instead of throwing it out wherever I was. It was also interesting to see my table mate, Zack Cong, and his amount of trash from the week. He said he cleaned his room and when he brought his trash in, he has three bags of it.

6. Would you change anything about this assignment?

I think that this assignment is set up quite well. I think something I would change is that if we find ourselves accidentally throwing something away or not wanting to lug around a heavy object, we could still record this in our inventory. We could write down things that we threw away that were not in our trash bags at the end of the week.