01/27/2026
Hi! I’m the president of WFS and I’ve fallen short lately in caring about every single piece of plastic. Turning this around asap. But with the hectic-ness and stress that these past several months had been, I’ve found myself at take-out drive-thrus more and with that comes those dreaded instances where I’ve once again forgotten to bring a reusable straw, to go container, etc. and accepted the plastic. I’m part of the problem, but that also means I am still capable of being part of the solution. Every act of mindfulness over mindlessness is important.
If I am already overwhelmed with my own plastic waste because I’m trying to survive within the current systems in place, how can I start to tackle everyone else’s plastic problem? I can and do often pick up trash. And I sort my recycling, single use plastic film (to be dropped off at a place which collects this), and freeze compostables/drop off at the composting farm. But I will not try picking up other people’s trash everywhere always. It’s exhausting. And it shouldn’t be just a few people’s problem when it’s everyone’s problem. I’m not saying “don’t pick up trash”, just- it can be overwhelming always wanting to do the right thing and falling short because of the sheer overwhelm. These are all signs of a failing system for composting, and with that is an opportunity to create a functional one through establishing composting access points in our community.
A side note on fast food plastic and compostable waste: It actually wouldn’t even make sense to go all-compostable fast food utensils, to-go containers, etc. vs. plastic yet until there is a streamlined composting system available within that area, because compostables thrown in the trash are like throwing away gold: something difficult to extract, rare and precious.
I’m not against buying things that make the most sense for your situation, but I do think mindfulness here is important.
