Ronak Singh
POINTS TOTAL
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- 0 THIS WEEK
- 86 TOTAL
Ronak's actions
Action Track: Healing & Renewal
Eat Mindfully
I will eat all of my meals without distractions, e.g., phone, computer, TV, or newspaper.
Food, Agriculture, and Land Use
Reduce Animal Products
Plant-Rich Diets
I will enjoy 2 meatless or vegan meal(s) each day of the challenge.
Industry
Practice the 5 R's
Recycling
I will Practice the "5 Rs" — refuse, reduce, reuse, repurpose, and recycle — to reduce my waste more than I can with just recycling alone.
Participant Feed
Reflection, encouragement, and relationship building are all important aspects of getting a new habit to stick.
Share thoughts, encourage others, and reinforce positive new habits on the Feed.
To get started, share “your why.” Why did you join the challenge and choose the actions you did?
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Ronak Singh 3/08/2022 9:13 PMAfter seeing some other posts about expiration dates on food, I decided to educate myself about what the expiration dates actually represent and how they may be contributing to food waste. Labels on food (other than infant formula) aren’t regulated by the federal government, and each state has different guidelines for what the dates are meant to represent. I found that most of the time the “expiration” dates are actually just “best by” dates which don’t mean anything about food safety and relate more to the best taste and texture of food products. As long as the food has been stored properly, the food is perfectly safe to eat for a period of time after the expiration date, especially if they are dry goods with little chance of spoiling. For example, something like a box of pasta can easily last 2+ years with no signs of spoiling as long as it is stored in a cool, dry place with low humidity.I have found you can get great deals on products that are close to reaching their “best by” dates, and often discounts at stores like Ralph’s or Target are easily 50% when you are within a couple days of reaching the sell by date. Many products can also be frozen indefinitely, and will retain their original taste and texture when properly defrosted and cooked. Rather than just relying on expiration dates, we can use our senses of smell and taste to determine if the food truly is spoiled, in which case it can be composted rather than being thrown away. These expiration dates also contribute massively to the food waste by large corporations and stores, as some states do not allow them to donate the food to food banks once it has “expired”. I think one possible solution would be to allow people to take the “expired” food for free to reduce the amount food that is sent to the landfill which releases huge amounts of methane as it decomposes.
https://www.vox.com/22559293/food-waste-expiration-label-best-before-
Jacob Wilson 3/09/2022 1:01 PMI agree I think that expiration dates are one thing that contributes to a massive amount of food waste. I actually worked for a summer in the grocery section of a Target and I was astounded by the amount of food we would throw out. Every day I had a list of food items I had to go check and anything that was past the “Best By” date would be taken off the shelves and just thrown away. On days where we got food shipments the packaging, produce, and meats would be inspected. Anything that didn't meet the quality standards was thrown out. It felt like 10 percent of the food we got never even made it to the shelves; in my short time there I must have thrown away at least a ton of food. There were a lot of other ways Target was wasteful as well; one time there was a power outage and about half the fridges in the store turned off for about an hour. We were told to throw EVERYTHING in those sections out. I took a lot home with me because it made no sense, all of the food was still cold to the touch. It just seemed ridiculous. This got me thinking about food waste and grocery stores and led me to doing some research.I found that about 30 percent of all food in grocery stores is thrown away, accounting for around 16 billion tons of food waste per year. Despite my time working in the grocery store, this was still surprising. There has to be a better way in which less food is wasted and more food is donated to those in need. I know that some stores do donate food that is just past expiration or is going to be thrown out. But the issue is these are usually smaller stores, the larger retailers such as Target and Walmart don’t have these types of programs because, put simply, it doesn’t make them money. It is a lot easier to just throw out food you can’t sell than to organize donations. I think as consumers something we can do is shop more at smaller or local grocery stores that donate unused food and avoid the larger corporations. I understand it isn’t an option for everyone but I will try to make an effort to spend my money at places that are less wasteful.
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Ronak Singh 3/08/2022 6:10 PMOnline shopping has increased exponentially since the beginning of the pandemic since it is safer and easier than going to retail stores and dealing with the hassles of lines and parking at the mall. Studies have found that it is also generally more eco-friendly than traditional retail shopping, since people don’t have to drive to the stores and the stores don’t have to waste as much electricity since there are less people in the stores. However, there is one huge problem with online shopping: shipping. The plastic and cardboard used for packaging contribute massively to global emissions and act as a double whammy because deforestation reduces the amount of carbon sequestration while the production of plastic increases levels of CO2. Another huge problem is last mile delivery; it is extremely inefficient and often results in huge amounts of pollution from delivery vehicles since they have to stop at every house on every block to deliver packages.
One way to combat this problem is to refuse expedited shipping, especially 1-day air shipping methods. An MIT study found that if traditional shipping methods are used, then online shopping actually reduces emissions by about half when compared to traditional shopping methods. However, this effect is cancelled when expedited shipping is used. Airplanes are some of the largest polluters, and when they are forced to fly half empty to get across the globe by the next day, they are wasting valuable resources and greatly increasing carbon emissions. One day shipping also results in problems with last mile delivery, as the delivery vehicles often only are half full, which generates more traffic and emissions since more vehicles are needed. By waiting an extra day or two to get your online order, you can allow shipping operations to maximize their efficiency by fully filling vehicles, which will reduce carbon emissions.
https://earth.org/online-shopping-and-its-environmental-impact/ -
Ronak Singh 3/07/2022 1:16 PMAfter watching a lecture on the impacts of the leather industry on the Amazon rainforest and reading some of your posts about the negative effects of fast fashion, I have decided to shop more sustainably and look into where products come from before buying them. Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest is being driven by the profitability of cattle farming, and a majority of the profits in farming cattle comes from the sale of leather. This leather is often purchased by designer Italian brands and then processed in Italy, so they claim the products were made in Italy. These brands also do not want to take responsibility for the original source of the leather, as they claim they bought it from a reputable seller, when in reality the original source can be traced back to illegal deforestation. The Amazon rainforest is considered to be “the lungs of the Earth” and is a huge source of oxygen along with being a sink of carbon. Deforestation will only accelerate climate change and also harm native people who rely on the Amazon to live.
On a personal level, I have decided not to buy any more leather goods that can be traced back to illegal Brazilian leather and the deforestation of the Amazon. I recently was looking for a new pair of shoes, and saw that Adidas had two options: the traditional leather version, and a new vegan version. Although the vegan version was slightly more expensive, I believe the price was very well justified since it means no animals were harmed in the process of making the shoes and they don’t contribute to deforestation. However, synthetic materials are also not perfect, as they often rely on inefficient and polluting industrial operations to make things out of plastic instead of leather. To combat this, adidas also claims that the shoe was made with recycled materials. As consumers we have more power over these large corporations than we think, and hopefully more conscious shopping will lessen the effects of climate change.
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Ronak Singh 3/05/2022 8:38 PMHi guys! I have recently been trying to practice the 3 “R’s” of waste management (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) in an effort to cut down on household waste that eventually just takes up space in the landfills. After I noticed how many shopping bags were collecting in our apartment due to frequent grocery trips, I decided it would be best to use a reusable bag rather than just recycling the paper and plastic ones from Target and Trader Joes. I actually found a “Chico Bag” that I had gotten in high school, and brought it with me to Westwood this quarter. The bag folds into itself when not in use, and has a really convenient belt clip to attach to your pants or a backpack. It expands out to the size of two normal plastic bags, and since it’s made of nylon you don’t have to worry about the straps breaking or it ever tearing, like a plastic bag would if it got too heavy.
For plastics and other recyclables that you do end up collecting, like milk cartons or pasta boxes, it really is essential that they are placed into the correct recycling bins. I had previously thought that recycling materials needed to be clean, so I had been rinsing them before putting them in the recycling, however, most recycling centers in California clean the materials anyways so you don’t have to. This makes recycling even easier, and also helps you save water since you don’t have to wash anything yourself. Recycling is an easy way to help the environment by reducing the waste in landfills and reducing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. Recycling also helps to save valuable resources, like aluminum and plastics, which means that less energy has to be expended to try and create entirely new products since old ones can be repurposed.
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Ronak Singh 3/05/2022 8:03 PMHey guys! After volunteering at Nourish LA I realized how big a problem food waste was in the United States. Many large companies and corporations throw away perfectly good food every day, and this food could greatly help those in need. After doing some research, I found that the USDA estimates that somewhere around 30-40% of the food supply goes to waste. This shows that lots of food insecurity in the US is likely caused by improper infrastructure rather than an actual lack of food. I would really recommend volunteering at Nourish LA to anyone who wants a fun and fulfilling activity on the weekends, especially since we have such great weather in LA and the food drive happens outdoors.
One of the easiest ways I found to minimize my personal food waste was to finish everything on my plate before leaving the table. This was a rule that my dad implemented for me when I was younger, because I was a really picky eater and would often leave lots of scraps. I also found that taking smaller portions and then going for seconds was a much better choice than piling food on my plate when I was really hungry and then hoping I could finish it all. I also have a newfound love for leftovers, because they save lots of cooking time the next day and allow me too repurpose my excess food. For example, I turned some leftover pasta into a stir fry with some veggies the next day and didn’t have to worry about what I would be having for lunch. -
Ronak Singh 2/26/2022 5:45 PMHi guys! It has finally been feeling a bit like winter the last few days in Westwood. Rather than turning on the heat in my apartment, I found that a better way to stay warm and control the temperature more precisely was to use an electric space heater. The heater works really fast and doesn’t cause the annoying musty smell that usually comes with using gas heaters or fireplaces. You also don’t have to deal with any of the smoke or dust that comes with a fireplace. It is also much more eco-friendly since it just uses electricity and doesn’t produce any harmful greenhouse gas emissions like burning natural gas or wood does.My roommates and I also found it kind of fun to all hand around the heater at night while watching TV and sort of found it like huddling around a campfire. Using the space heater rather than the whole apartment heat also allows me to keep different rooms at different temperatures, which I also found really nice since I sleep better in the cold. Using the heater is also much cheaper than running the whole apartment heat since gas prices are at all-time highs as well. Overall, I really would recommend using an electric space heater rather than using central heat, and I think this would be an even more useful tool in the future if you live a place that isn’t as warm as Westwood.
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Ronak Singh 1/31/2022 10:28 PMHey guys! I have been trying to eat more sustainably and decided to implement “Meatless Monday’s” for the rest of the quarter. Today I made falafels for lunch and dinner and I was very pleased with the result! They tasted great and had plenty of protein and carbs to keep me full until my next meal. Making them was extremely easy and I actually got all the ingredients from Trader Joe’s. I walked there with my roommate to do groceries for the week and stumbled upon the falafel mix while browsing around. I just followed the instructions on the package for the falafels and they turned out great. I thought they were so good I actually managed to convince my roommate to try them as well.I previously had thought that meat was a necessary part of my diet in order to get enough protein. However, plant-based sources of protein like lentils, beans, and tofu are great alternatives and sometimes contain more protein per serving than meat. The falafels are mainly made from fava beans and chickpeas and actually had 12 grams of protein per serving. I also felt great after eating them and didn’t have to worry about things like meat sweats. I really did not miss meat at all and hopefully will be able to find more meatless alternatives in the future.
