Photo by frankfarm via Flickr

A New York Times article “Nudging Recycling From Less Waste to None” caught my attention recently. The article is about a new  anti-garbage movement know as Zero Waste.

The article cites statistics by the Environmental Protection Agency stating Americans dump 4.6 pounds of garbage per person per day and  food waste accounts for about 13 percent of total trash nationally.

All this trash eventually ends up in landfills. So to avoid making so much trash people are recycling and composting everything possible.

So it got me thinking of how CSUN deals with its waste. Thanks to the  Associated Students Recycling Center we have recycling bins around campus. But how about doing more?

How about starting to compost food waste around campus?

Early in the semester, someone from the Institute for Sustainability had mentioned their desire to start composting on this campus. With the farmers market plan being halted, hopefully the institute can take up the issue of reducing CSUN’s waste.

As the Times article indicates, the hardest part of composting is educating those who have no clue what it’s all about. The photo above, which was taken by frankfarm and obtained via Flickr, shows how UC San Francisco is taking up the issue of composting. Notice how they visually show students what goes where.

So, just before I was about to apply for welfare Obama came in for the rescue…hehe just kidding!

Recently, our president-elect had one of his fireside chats with the nation through YouTube, and the main topic of this chat was his great plan to save the economy by creating an “Economic Recovery Plan” that will create 2.5 million jobs!!!

This “Recovery Plan” entails: rebuilding our infrastructure, improving our schools, and reducing our dependence on oil. We have heard all of these before.

This is supposed to “create millions of jobs by making the single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of our federal highway system in the 1950’s”

And how much money are we talking about….? Currently there is no price tag on it but according to The New York Times it is supposed to cost somewhere from $400 to $700 billion!

That’s a lot of mullah that we don’t have right now. Either way, if this does pass, it brings hope to 2 million people who have lost their jobs this year alone!