In this day and age it seems almost impossible for humans to not create waste. Whether it’s from all the extra hardly-worn shirts that we have hanging in our closets to the empty water bottles hiding below our beds, it is easy to accumulate things that we really don’t need.
A small shop called Package Free in Brooklyn, New York is working to change this by getting on board with the “Zero Waste” trend and selling sustainable products. According to CNN, the Zero Waste Movement aims to reduce the amount of trash in landfills. This shop will be selling products such as bamboo toothbrushes and toilet paper, tea tree bar soap and bags made out of cloth (only to name a few). Package Free will be opening on May 1, 2018.
Photo illustration by Benajil Rai/ Equinox Staff
This shop isn’t the only shop working towards the goal of eliminating our waste and they aren’t the ones who came up with the idea. CNN stated that the idea can be dated all the way back to when George H.W. Bush was president. Under him, “Congress passed the Pollution Prevention Act which angled to prevent or reduce pollution whenever possible and in turn spend less on controlling pollution,” according to CNN.
CNN’s article, “Zero waste isn’t just for hippies anymore” also explained that major brands such as IKEA and Nestlé are also working to have zero waste, as Nestlé completed this in 2015 and IKEA aims for 2020. So, if major companies and even small shops can achieve their goals of having zero waste, we at Keene State College should be able to do the same.
At KSC, we have Recycling on Campus (R.O.C.K.S) which is a group that recycles tin and aluminum cans, plastic food containers, glass jars, cardboard, batteries, and paper, along with many other miscellaneous items.
We also have buildings like the Living Learning Community (LLC) and the Technology Design and Safety (TDS) Center. There’s even a major dedicated to Sustainability, called Sustainable Product and Design. When it comes down to it, the only way to really get our campus to head in the right direction towards eliminating waste starts individually.
There are plenty of tools on campus that make it easy to recycle and be nicer to the environment-students just need to take become more self-aware.
By making simple changes such as switching from plastic grocery bags to reusable cloth bags, or buying more sustainable products, we will make our campus more eco-friendly and slowly eliminate our waste.
So stop buying plastic water bottles and start using a refillable bottle. Stop buying things that you’re only going to use once, and be more conscience of your surroundings. It may be hard and it may take a while, but if we aimed to have zero waste, our environment will thank us. We only have so much room on this planet for trash.
I think that the Package Free shop is taking a step in the right direction and I would like to see other stores follow. There are so many things that go to waste and it’s nice to buy something knowing that it is not going to waste.
I would like to see stores like this pop up in Keene so that KSC students can have better access to reusable items. We are the future and if we start by making small changes now, we will be able to eliminate our waste immensely.
Grace Pecci can be contacted at gpecci@kscequinox.com
