Although it literally grossed me out, composting in the commons is such a great idea. It is true that tons of food gets wasted there daily, so composting makes sense. My only thing is, when meat is wasted, where can it go if it can’t be composted? I like the idea of putting bins by the conveyor belt where most food is thrown away; It seems most logical. It was stated that if it is done right it shouldn’t smell, which I really hope is true! It kind of grosses me out that manure will be in the same place that I am eating… That can cause a sanitation problem so putting in a hand washing station nearby would be a great addition to the plan. After the food is composted where does it go? How often will the bins be changed? I think the idea overall can be really beneficial to the campus as far as controlling food waste and beautifying campus with healthy, homemade dirt! My only concern is the sanitation aspect of it. I hope to see this plan move forward!
All posts by jsade5
Group Project
My group has decided to do end-of-the-semester rummage sales to reduce the amount of things people throw away at the end of the semester. Students will be able to donate lightly used clothing, furniture, and appliances throughout the semester at designated locations. Students and faculty alike will be able to purchase these items at bargain prices. All proceeds from the sale will be donated to the charity of our choosing and any left over items will go to a non-profit organization like Purple Heart or Salvation Army.
My group members are: Hailey Holmgren , Daphne Hardy , and Allexa Hollis.
My role in this project is the presentation aspect. It was suggested that I use the website, Prezi, to compile the information we found. I also plan on contacting the VISION and Greek Life offices on campus to see about making this a regularly occurring volunteer event. The key to making this project successful is getting people involved. My fellow team mate Allexa has already began working on getting the word out to the campus community. If we can get the idea through the various approvals and put into action, we can make a trumendous difference in the lives of many people.
After Earth…
In this week’s blog I will discuss how the media answers the question of how humanity would respond in the event of an environmental threat. I chose the fictional movie After Earth seeing as that the title in itself gives a pretty good idea of what it is about. In the movie, the earth was destroyed by pollution and was no longer habitable by humans. The human population relocated to another planet, Nova Prime, where they had to learn a new way of life as either a ranger or civilian. Rangers were similar to the military, however, they fought off the Ursa aliens for survival. 1,000 years after the destruction of Earth and relocation to Nova Prime, Kitai and his father, General Cypher Raige returned to Earth as sort of a father – son bonding trip. After being struck by an asteroid, their ship crash lands on Earth and they are the lone survivors. Cypher is badly injured so Kitai had to travel hundreds of kilometers to retrieve the distress signal. Earth at this time is not how it used to be. The atmosphere is destroyed so nights are literally freezing and oxygen is severely low from a human standpoint. Animals have heightened survival instincts; venoms were more potent, movement was faster, and they adapted to drastic climates including the low oxygen level. To add fuel to the fire, an Ursa was running rampant along with all the other human shredding animals. Kitai was forced to put all he learned into action and fight for his survival.
The way this movie answers the question of human response to environmental disaster is that it depicts life on another planet as it has been investigated in real life. There is belief that Mars may be able to sustain human life. Now, After Earth may not be a far stretch from reality if pollution continues at the current alarming rates. Climate change is rapidly happening and soon animals will begin to evolve and adapt and humans may even go extinct. It is imperative that people become aware of what the slightest bit of pollution can do. Imagine that plastic bag you see on the ground times 7 billion (one for every person on earth)… That’s a lot of bags! So please, do your part and help save our home. I don’t think any of us wants to fight off human shredding aliens…
What’s gonna work? Teamwork!
Group Projects… We all have done them. I myself have a bittersweet feeling toward them. Its nice to share the load, but sometimes I would rather just do it alone… or not at all! Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, I can give you the latest scoop on what’s happening in the group project world of HNRS 179! Yay. 
My group that I am thankful to collaborate with for this project has suggested the idea of end of semester rummage sales! At these sales, students will be able to get rid of any unwanted clothes, shoes, furniture, you name it (in good condition). All items will be accepted by donation. Any member of the Eastern Michigan University community will be able to participate by donating, shopping, or lending a hand in organizing the event. Any items left over after the close of the event will be donated to a non profit organization, like Salvation Army. We also agreed that it would be great to give to shelters and half way houses. Monetary donations will also be accepted. Proceeds will go towards helping students on campus and a selected charity. Donations will be accepted year ’round. Our goal is to get donation bins in common areas: dorms, campus apartments, the student center, and outside of dining halls and parking lots. 
Our hope is that we can get this idea to VISION volunteer center at the student center and we can put this plan into action. Instead of clothes and furniture and appliances just being thrown in the trash, they will be given to a great cause! Given the opportunity I believe that we will be able to touch thousands of lives, including our own. Sustaining the environment is not just about nature, but also the people who live in it.
Waste and Want: Waste and Hygeine
“Bathrooms, washing machines, commercial laundries, cheap and affordable soap powders, and affordable ready-made clothes had developed in the modern woman ‘standards of hygiene for higher than those of their ancestors.’ – Susan Strasser, Waste and Want: A Social History of Trash
Susan Strasser discusses waste in relation to hygiene and paper products. The marketing and distribution of toilet paper, paper cups and towels, paper washbowls, and sanitary napkins were some of the major products in the 1890s – 1920s. When the germ theory grew more and more popular Americans became more aware of the risks of being unclean. As a result, businesses began working towards cheap ways to make products to improve sanitation thus leading to the disposable paper products I previously mentioned. People then started to believe that using cheap paper was better than using products that would last. Companies cared more about what could be made from paper versus what paper could be made from (174 – 174).
Toilet paper and paper cups brought the most controversy to the nation. Initially, people would reuse old newspapers and magazines as toilet paper until companies convinced people to use their product, which was “softer and cleaner.” Paper cups became popular once people found out about the germs associated with regular, long lasting cups. However, people rejected the sale of paper cups (they were free before the demand increased) and resorted to reusing them while failing to realize they were accumulating germs and bacteria (Strasser 176 – 177).
What has this to do with waste here and now? Well, nowadays almost all of these products are still in use. The issue? They are DISPOSABLE. They get thrown away. It would be very unhealthy to recycle toilet paper or sanitary napkins. The sharing of or exposure to bodily fluids can have some major consequences. The best possible solution to controlling the waste due to hygiene would be to stop using disposable products, but that can have negative outcomes too. The truth is, you cant really stop hygienic waste from accumulating without risking health depletion. What we can do is separate hygienic waste from other waste to prevent the spread of disease and germs. Go Health!
Poetry of Nature
Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota
Over my head, I see the bronze butterfly,
Asleep on the black trunk,
Blowing like a leaf in green shadow.
Down the ravine behind the empty house,
The cowbells follow one another
Into the distances of the afternoon.
To my right,
In a field of sunlight between two pines,
The droppings of last years horses
Blaze up into golden stones.
I lean back, as the evening darkens and comes on.
A chicken hawk floats over, looking for home.
I have wasted my life.
James Wright (1927-1980)
When I read this poem, the first thing that popped in my mind was ‘this sounds like a cute little place!’ I imagined myself in the hammock surrounded by the sounds and feels of late summer afternoon. I could see the chicken hawk however, I don’t think I imagined it as it really exists which was kind of a spoiler… I tried to imagine the ravine but I don’t know what a ravine is so all I got was a blank slide. According to Webster, a ravine is “a deep, narrow gorge with steep sides” similar to a canyon. So that means it was probably formed by a river. This new information changed my whole image. Instead of a hilly farm I see a flat, grassy area with a few trees and a small gap of stream flowing through it. I saw the green shadow that engulfed the bronze butterfly and heard the distant ringing of cowbells.
- Minnesota Farm
The passages that left me with most wonder are bolded within the poem above: The droppings of last year’s horses Blaze up into golden stones and I have wasted my life.
I believe that the droppings of last year’s horses was left on the land as fertilizer and the yellow stones are actually a crop or flower seen from afar. When I read the latter, it made me think the character spent so much time with the outside world that when he finally sat back and enjoyed nature he realized that he spent his life doing the wrong things.
This poem helps me to envision the beauty that nature really has. From the pleasant sights to the not so pleasant smells, nature should be appreciated for what it is. The simple things like noticing the sights and smells and sounds are what give life to the world.
Why so wasteful?
This week, I took pictures of three trash cans that I had to change this past week and a pizza box. To me that’s pretty ridiculous seeing as it was mostly paper. But my trash can is only about the size of a waste paper basket. Haha, WASTE paper… A lot of the things that I threw away I didn’t see a future purpose for so away they went.
Anyway, with the pizza box I threw away Jimmy Johns wrapper, fountain drink cups, Chinese food that froze in the refrigerator, a Gatorade bottle, and some fake hair. I recycled the pizza box only because it wouldn’t fit in my trash can… I’m kidding! I usually recycle pizza boxes regularly and soda cans or bottles. in essence, everything was recyclable except the fake hair…
I actually already had a solution to controlling my waste and saving money! I brought with me to school plastic reusable dishes instead of paper or styrofoam. I like to eat often so this was a pretty wise decision on my part. On top of saving the earth, I also saved a little “green” if you know what I mean.
A potential policy that my school, Eastern Michigan University, can implement is cash incentive for recycling. Like the recycle stations at most grocery stores, there should be stations put in that give people small amounts of money for recycling. Paper 5 cents, plastic 10 cents, etc. Cash incentives will make people recycle more so they can also earn more! Everyone loves money so it’s a win – win.
Environmental (in)Justice
Environmental justice can be defined as just distribustion of environmental benefits and burdens. Environmental injustice and unjust distribution of environmental benefits and burdens results from a lack of participatory justice. Hurricane Katrina that hit New Orleans in 2005 is a great example of environmental injustice. The environment did not give the people who lived there a say as to when or where the disaster would hit and who would be affected, it was impossible. There goes particiarory justice. It is hard to say that compensatory justice was served beacause thousands of people lost everything they had and are still recovering to this day. No amount of money can make up for everything that was lost in that storm.
The earthquake in Haiti is an even bettr example of environmental injustice. According to CNN, about 1.5 million people lost their homes and 279,000 remain homeless since 2013. 23% of the schools were destroyed. How do we compensate for what the environment took? As a result, a Cholera outbreak affected about 672,000 people. Aboout $881 million were donated to fight the cholera outbreak and support reconstruction.
In Amitov Ghosh’s novel, The Hungry Tide, environmental injustice shows up when Fokir and Piya were leaving Garjantola in search of more dolphins.
“The animals remained in the pool till midmorning, when the waters began to rise. Then again, over a period of about a half an hour, they vanished … They left the pool while the tide was still coming in and the current added a little to their pace … with the tide in flood, surrounding islands were sliding gradually beneath the water.”
Piya had observed that the tide was the same level as the day before, but at at different time. Although the flooding was not a disaster, it served as a benefit and a burden. Piya was able to see the dolphins because of the tide, which also gave them a slight boost of speed. However, the current was hard to paddle through and led them to a muddy, crocodile infested area. The islands that slid under the water were unjustly served being it that they are never compensated, or have no say in what the tide chooses to do.
Welcome to my place
I spent a small amount of my childhood in a city that I see as nothing like Ypsilanti. Southfield is a small detroit suburb about 45 minutes from there. It is a pretty busy place. Not quite New York City busy; more like Ann Arbor after rush hour. It was home. I met my childhood best friend. Well maybe not life-long. We met when i was five and he was six. After I moved to Ypsilanti four years later we lost touch and drifted apart. That’s pretty much how all of my old friendships ended up but I know if I were to cross paths with any of them it would be as if I never left.
After living in Ypsilanti for almost ten years, it feels more like home to me than Southfield ever did. I fell in love with the tranquility of what I would call the ‘countryside’. I had only ever seen corn fields in horor movies and now I live five minutes down the road from quite a few. I had never seen a two lane road before. On top of that, there are hardly any traffic lights, stop signs, or street lights on main roads. The darkness took a lot of getting used to. Now I can actually see the stars on a clear night.
Neither place had a necessariy unhealthy environment, but Southfield is definitely more industrial and is home to more people. When I lived there I was too young to understand how throwing my straw paper out of the car window or leaving a sucker wrapper on the ground destroyed the environment. To me it seemed so innocent. After all it was just a piece of paper, right? I noticed that Ypsilanti is actually very clean. I hardly see any trash laying around the ground and when I do, I throw it away. I never would have imagined that I would pick up any trash off the gorund. EW! More specifially, Eastern Michigan University is the cleanest place I have ever seen. With a trash can every twenty feet I don’t expect otherwise. As a campus resident, I want to uphold the beauty of where I live. I would not dare litter and when I see others do it, I speak up. Now that I think about it, living in Ypsilanti has changed me more than I thought. I am much more environmentally friendly. Go Green!
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