Past Solutions
Our team wants to limit wasted food, so I researched past attempts to solve this problem. Excess of food waste is an issue all over the globe, therefore solutions can come from anywhere. An organization in Europe wanted to reduce food waste by making throwaway plastic containers to store food in (Zero Waste Europe). This would extend the time period that food should be consumed in. People prefer to buy more groceries than they need, or order more food than they can consume. This leads to unused groceries eventually going bad, or leftovers which spoil if not preserved properly. This organization provided adaptable plastic to fit whatever dish is being stored. Less food waste equates to less methane being released in the atmosphere, improving the air quality, which lessens the chances of atmosphere induced asthma attacks. Focusing primarily on the impact plastic has on food waste, people would consider their solution a success. They thought so too. Europe forgot to account for the effects of the large amount of plastic being thrown away after each usage. When plastic burns it releases hydrochloric acid, sulfur dioxide, dioxins, furans, and particulates which are known to cause respiratory ailments (Biemiller). In order to limit food waste and improve the quality of air, they provided a solution that limited food waste, but made the air quality worse! This is an important lesson for my group to weigh all aspects of our project. We can’t solve one problem and add or abide to another. We might not be trying to work in Europe, but we are working on the same problem as Europe and can learn from each other. In 2019, In order to counteract the abundance of plastic being thrown away, European parliament voted to ban single-use plastic cutlery, cotton buds, straws, and stirrers in 2021 as part of a sweeping law against plastic waste that despoils beaches and pollutes oceans (Chatain).
Learning from Past Solutions
When we are exploring the problem we want to solve, we must first take a look into the past to find out what has already been accomplished or attempted. By analyzing the work others have done, we can be more productive towards our goals. The past shows what aspects of our project we should focus on to help us be successful, along with the aspects we should avoid because others have been down that path and failed. We don’t have to limit ourselves to the past attempts in the area we want to solve. If another location has the same problem, we can learn from their attempts as well. The goal is to improve someone’s life, in order to do that we need to try and limit as much error as possible, and expand on the things that we know works. Past attempts are useful to let us know what has been done so we can learn from them. Knowing the current attempts are a good way to eliminate duplicate solutions. Analyzing the foundation of current attempts lets us see what they were specifically trying to do, how long ago they started, and the progress they made. We can form a relationship between the size of their problem and the time it’s taking for them to make progress towards it, to measure if ours is reasonable in the time given. If we never look at current attempts and just start working towards our problem, only to later find out our solution is already in progress, we just wasted our time and did not improve anyone’s life. This segment is designed to show the results of researching past solutions, and current organizations or attempts at limiting food waste.
To learn about current organizations working at this problem please view or report under the "Final Report" page. Current Organizations should be listed on pages 20-25.
To learn about current organizations working at this problem please view or report under the "Final Report" page. Current Organizations should be listed on pages 20-25.