Last Laugh, Last Bits

Waste is something my family considered a major no-no. As in most of my generation, we were constantly reminded that there were starving children in the world and we should, therefore, eat what was put on our plates and to never waste food or anything, for that matter. Perhaps it comes from early memories of food rationing when the issue of waste was a vitally personal thing, not just a never-mind-about-that. When the sugar ration didn't cover the needs, there was no more to be had. Period. But these days of over indulgence in just about everything and little thought about wasting, when the toothpaste tube becomes almost empty or the jar of peanut butter or the tin of tuna still has blobs in the bottom, we toss it out. We don't think about how much is wasted when all of the bits left on restaurant plates or home dinner dishes of fussy eaters or kids' school lunches are chucked into trash bins. What bothers me over and above that kind of waste, is the everyday sort that isn't necessarily food but other purchased things like personal care items and cosmetics and shampoos that have product still inside which are very difficult to drain completely. Hand lotion bottles with squirt tops are the most frustrating. The little tube ends before the bottom to avoid stopping up, and that's okay, but why is the container made so that when the tube no longer emits the material, one cannot easily access the remainder. I find that I have to remove the squirt system, store the bottle upside down and laboriously, over periods of many days, attempt to get the remaining goop out and put it to work. Why should I have to do this to feel responsible about not wasting? If the top were broad enough so that I could get a wand in there and use the rest of the expensive product out, I would feel much better. But the makers of the container likely hope that you will throw it out and buy another bottle of their lotion. Sounds cynical but it happens.  And most people do exactly that. They toss out. There are some folks who might laugh long and hard at this kind of thrift and call it names, but to me, it is another example of the self indulgence of present day society's romance with user irresponsibility.  "Oh, just toss it out" is the philosophy of that kind of individual. What we waste in restaurants would feed a great many homeless people and some of these establishments find ways not to waste. Thanks to them. According to food safety rules, what goes out of the restaurant kitchen does not come back into the cooking section, therefore the rolls in the basket you didn't eat or the pile of potato chips or the last couple of pizza pieces you didn't touch and won't take home, must be thrown out. I remember visiting my grandmother in a downtown city location once, and looking out a back window seeing the nightly visit by a man who took away his dinners: piles of fast food fried chicken that were left at the top of the dumpster at the end of the day. He was one of the lucky ones. When we give children breakfasts in schools because parents cannot afford to offer the nutrition kids need to grow and learn, we should have a conversation or thought about not only food waste but also about the whole matter of waste in general. It is not laughable topic.