Wasted

One of the biggest problems on our planet is one that we rarely encounter firsthand: trash. For a problem that we only personally know to the extent of, "Ugh I gotta take the trash out now", we are truly in a dire situation. The Toxic Actions Center reports that Americans have thrown out 570 billion pounds of solid waste. This is a size we literally cannot fathom. Though we only make up 4% of the world's population, we produce 30% of the world's waste! What could possibly comprise this monstrous amount of trash?
Another statistic that might help us figure out the source of all the waste is from the National Resource Defense Council, which states that Americans throw out $165 billion in food each year. For a country where roughly 16% of its citizens were struggling to afford food for their families just last year, this is a frightening statistic. Just thinking about the amount of land dedicated to holding this wasted food, responsible for a lot of pollution we have as well is a depressing thought.
Luckily for us though, this is a problem we can try to fix with a collective effort. Farm to Freezer offers a very green solution in their article, "Food Waste: We are the Problem and the Solution" in which they mention a company called the Compost Crew which picks up your house's food waste to turn it into compost, which can be used to feed animals or as nutrients for fields that we use to plant crops. This provides such a large outlet to a greener planet while being more efficient with our food and garbage, and with little to no effort on our part aside from actually taking the trash out for the Compost Crew to pick up. And this is only one possible solution to a crisis. This is an opportunity for us to show the world what Americans do best, by coming together and turning a bad situation into a great triumph.