Ever wonder what happens to something after you throw it away? Or how much trash you are accumulating each day? For a lot of us, trash is out of sight, out of mind once the garbage truck takes it away or we throw it into the waste bin when we’re out in public. It’s easy to be desensitized to just how much waste we’re actually producing, because it’s everywhere! For environmental activist Rob Greenfield, this was an important aspect of environmentalism that he wanted to bring light to. And I think it’s safe to say that he did!
The average American creates 4.5 pounds of trash every single day, yet most people never think twice about it. 4.5 pounds may not seem like a lot, but if you add that up over time it quickly becomes a lot of trash. Not sure what that would look like? Rob Greenfield decided to create a visual that people couldn’t ignore. For 30 days, he lived like the average American but instead of throwing out his trash, he decided to wear it. Yup! He wore every piece of trash he produced on his body for 30 days straight. You imagine how much that outfit grew over time!
His goal with this project was to bring attention to the insane amount of waste that is being generated by the average American, and to help steer people away from a single-use, throw-away mindset. The truth of the matter is …our planet cannot sustain the amount of waste and destruction that the human species has caused and his continuing to create every single day. Individual actions matter.
This sentiment is exactly why we are so passionate about advocating for the removal of single-use plastics from our daily lives. It may seem like individual actions don’t matter in the grand scheme of things, but the truth is that they do. Change starts from the bottom up, with passionate people and grassroots campaigns advocating for a better world. Rob Greenfield is a prime example of how one person’s actions can cause a positive ripple effect. Low-waste living is not out of reach for many of us if we choose to prioritize.
Conscious consumerism is a key component in sustainable living. Looking for ways to decrease consumerism is ideal, and when needing to make purchases that you can’t get around it’s imperative to find companies and businesses who align with your values and put people over profit. We can preserve a beautiful world for generations to come, and undo some of the damage caused if we put our minds to it. Learn more about how to live low-waste over on Rob Greenfield’s website here.