Waste Not, Want Not

A recent Oprah episode on reducing waste I glimpsed recently had her challenge two families to stay off computers, video games and food outside for 1 week. Believe me, both families were pretty stuck in a rut. Sneakily using the computer when no one's watching and a whole bunch of problems in the first few days! But soon enough they were getting pretty used to the whole idea. The dad said a friend of his asked whether he caught the game (possibly rugby) recently, but he didn't have the nerve to tell him he didn't. Instead he was spending time reading to his children before bedtime. At least he did something.

And yes, no surprise, both families succeeded in completing the challenge.

Now before I go on, don't say that I'm onto her like the millions of people that catch her show almost everyday without fail! It's just pure coincidence that this episode was on while my mum and grandma were watching the telly.

According to Oprah, the whole point of the episode was to raise awareness on how much people waste on things they think they need but ultimately prove pointless. Hey, she didn't say computers are pointless as I do believe she uses one too. But it does highlight how much waste we end up disposing of at the end of the day. To prove her point she had a short clip showing a group of people who spent their time LOOKING for fresh food in a local neighborhood's dumpsters. Can you imagine that? And they found some! Not one, but SOME! Good grief, that's proof enough!

Now let's just look at ourselves: do we waste more than we realize? Sometimes, we buy loads of stuff that we think is important - but in the end, we throw most of it or give them away. Food especially, like when you cook up a storm and much of the food isn't finished, what'd you do? You take them all up, put it in a bag and dump it in the bin! That's it! Problem solved. In a sense. But we're really doing the wrong thing. Heck, come to think of it, feeding stray animals and the birds can be even considered wasting food! (Does it? This is kinda debatable, since we're feeding nature in a sense. Any remarks?)

Then Oprah showed another clip about a woman (forgot her name, sorry XD) who, after watching another of Oprah's shows (does she do several?) was inspired to cut down on her consumption of stuff. She lives a rather fabulous life: making a six-figure pay, going out every day to shop and spending her money on anything her money can buy. But then after watching that particular show, she was inspired to make a change to her lifestyle and be more careful on what she spends. By planning ahead, checking prices and stuff, she now saves so much more than she used to. And by the looks of it she's enjoying her new lifestyle. Less time shopping, less time on TV, less spent on too much food, etcetera.

I could hardly believe my ears. And eyes too. But there it all was.

You don't need to go such great lengths! It all starts with simple actions, like closing the tap when it's not in use, turning off the lights when no one's around - pretty much what we normally do to conserve. It's easy. If you want to go ahead and start cutting down on a large-scale, then by all means do it. That's your choice. It's up to us on how we wanna cut down on waste.

Cheers!