#4 Termination of Styrofoam usage:

        Simple things throughout the day tend to make the day seem a lot longer then it really is. Daily chores such as dishes, floors, and laundry seem to take up most of that time, leaving the day feeling busy and hectic. Without finishing these three main chores either daily or every other day, a household can ultimately become messy and disorganized. Maybe this is the explanation as to why people such as myself, become overwhelmed and resort to using unhealthy materials such as Styrofoam plates at meal times. I mean attending school for 5 hours a day, working for 6 hours a night and coming home to clean the dishes is not always what I look forward doing when I get home. 

            

       And its obvious my mother doesn’t want to come home and clean up after me. Some people may just be as lucky as to own a dishwasher, where they can then just pile the dishes in and within a few minutes they have clean dishes. In my house hold that is not an option, dishes by hand is the only way to clean. I guess this is one way my family is green is that we do not have a dishwasher, unless Trina is the latest and greatest brand of dishwasher. But seriously, how long does it take for someone to actually clean a load of dishes by hand…5 minutes maximum. I’m sure I can sacrifice 5 minutes a day, knowing I have not produced very much garbage.

       So today I am going to terminate any Styrofoam plate use, I am going to quit this lazy business and do my part for the environment—use reusable ceramic plates, and clean them by hand. Except my trick is to limit the water usage while doing so. This will limit any unneeded garbage and also any excess water. (Instead of filling my sink to the top, I will fill halfway—only what is needed.)

       Even though it should be known that Styrofoam is non-biodegradable, some people are still unaware of the problem Styrofoam poses to our environment. A website I found reveals the truth about Styrofoam, providing information on how this awful material resists the break-down process. It was stated that all around the world, down the coasts and water ways styrofoam has been accumulated due to its weightlessness and being un-properly recycled. Acting as a “worthless” scrap, many recycling groups avoid recycling this material. Majority of the people do not recognize how serious Styrofoam effects our ozone layer and what negative impacts it has towards global warming. The website also mentions that Styrofoam materials are manufactured using hydroflourocarbons and brominated-flame retardants which is essentially a problem when it comes to human health.    

           

     <http://www.greenandsave.com/green_news/sam_koch/

     serving_environmentalism_on_styrofoam_plates>. 

        I have included a video that will help with the understanding of the recycling process. There still are places that will recycle the Styrofoam and this is one of those groups. This video shows step-by-step instructions on how these recyclers go about recycling this material.