Check out my blog’s Instagram account here.

“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you.
What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”
-Dr. Jane Goodall, The Jane Goodall Institute Australia

Summer Food Waste Series

Over the next three months, I will be posting a three part series regarding food waste. Food waste is a major issue across the world with perfectly food getting waste ending up in landfills, wasting precious resources, and still many going hungry across the world. Sources of the issue come from three main points: farms (June), retails/restaurants (July), and us as consumers (August). In the posts, I will go through the main issue within that source and what can be done by organizations and consumers to help reduce food waste.

Why am I Writing this Blog?

My favorite movie, Wall-E, is about a cute robot that roams around a literal waste metropolis while the human race must live in a spaceship because of the overwhelming amount of trash. This movie resembles what our future will look if we keep producing waste at the rate we do. We may not have the option of flying into space to get away. Instead, we may drown in our waste just like the fish in our oceans.

It is going to take a lot of effort to solve this issue, but hopefully this blog can provide guidance on how simple it can be to reduce our waste. Mastering one sustainable skill at a time will go a long way to make an environmental impact.

The Goal of I’m Not Trashy:

I am not expecting everyone to throw out all their plastic-wrapped items immediately and live a completely sustainable lifestyle overnight. Trust me, it took me a while to get the hang of it, and I consider myself the environmental geek. The goal is to help people be mindful about decisions that they make in their everyday lives and show that small steps to reduce waste can go a long way to reduce our waste consumption. Then we can see if some people are up for the challenge and want to try to live zero-waste ;).

I’m Still Learning, But I Can Teach You Where to Start:

A big misconception about when I say, “I live a zero-waste lifestyle” is that people think that I am trying to literally produce no waste. With some necessities in my life (which will be talked about more in Sustainable Struggles) it is hard to achieve that, and sometimes I make mistakes. However, I have trained myself to slowly consume less by figuring out what things I need to buy versus what I want, such as trying to make items or food myself instead of buying them in packaging. Making any effort is a start and I hope I can teach you in a way that is simple and easy to follow. 🙂

A Little Bit About Me:

I was born and raised in the Bay Area of California where many efforts are made on sustainability and conservation. I graduated from University of California, Davis in 2019 with a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Toxicology with a minor in Environmental Policy. I am currently working to receive my Master of Environmental Management with a Concentration in Business and Environment at Duke University.

I was always interested in sustainability growing up, particularly with
waste reduction. It started with taking charge of the recycling system and
implementing a composting program at my high school. In college, I was the
sustainability chair of my sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta (Go Theta!), where I
reorganized the recycle system and got a composting program at our house,
making us the only one out of eight Greek houses in the neighborhood to do
composting.

I choose a zero-waste lifestyle not only for myself, but to show others how they can change their wasteful habits. People see my actions, and people start to think about their own habits and question why they should and want to change to become more sustainable. I do not expect everyone to flip the switch and go zero-waste, but I want to get the conservation going and get people thinking. Once you think about wanting to change, me and other zero-waste advocates are here to show you how.