Wasteful Americans

Wasteful Americans

America is one of the most wasteful countries in the world. We as a country use more than any other country on the planet, without even realizing it. Nearly 40 percent of the food supply in the United States goes to waste. We throw away billions of water bottles, burn thousands of watts of electricity, and even waste millions of gallons of water each day. Why do we do this without a care? We do it because society has made being wasteful a part of everyday life. As Americans we do not even think twice about wasting, we just do it; it is a second nature to us. Americans are wasteful in plenty of ways, but four ways that stick out in my mind are food, water, gasoline/fuel, and electricity.

One of the biggest things we as Americans waste is food. In half of the countries across the world there are plenty of people who would probably do just about anything to get something to eat. There are 842 million hungry people in the world and 98 percent of them are in developing countries. On average, Americans waste 14 percent of the food they buy, including products still within their expiration date, but were just never opened. It is nothing for an average family to throw away half of their refrigerator within a month’s time. Even grocery stores and fast food restaurants are guilty of being wasteful. Most food places will throw away food even if it is only a day old because they promise total freshness to their customers; not saying that is a bad thing, but they could at least donate the food to someone who could use it.

Secondly, water is probably the most wasted necessity in America. The United States wastes over 7 billion gallons of drinking water per day. We as Americans take having fresh, drinkable water for granted. It is nothing for us to let the water running while we are washing dishes or brushing our teeth. Most of us shower more than once a day, when in reality it is not needed. For instance, some people take showers just because they are...