Writing Sample 1:
Summary:
“Nature Inc.” is the idea that the authors came up with as a way to describe the newest way of conservation and how we interact with nature. This paper discusses how it has been developed over time, how we as a society have shaped it, how it’s represented, and lastly how natural materials travel around the globe.
Thoughts:
I had never heard the terminology “Nature Inc.” before and thought it was interesting but rather unnecessary. I liked what a lot of this article had to say and thought it was interesting how we now look at nature and our interactions with it. However, I just feel the new term is rather unnecessary, they easily described and discussed all of the concepts they needed without one overarching term, and it seems like trying to put all of these ideas under one term is meant to simplify the problem more than anything, which could lead to confusion and misunderstandings on environmental issues; like, for example, the terms global warming and climate change and how people misunderstand them and their meaning. Otherwise in terms of context and what was discussed I found it interesting. It reminded me a lot of things I had learned in other classes, such as how produce moves globally and all of the excess plastic and cardboard that can go into moving them.
Writing Sample 2:
I chose to try to go zero waste for my lifestyle project mainly due to the amount of cup noodles and take out I have that cause me to have a lot of plastic and foam waste. I also have been resorting to using a plastic water bottle for water that I use for a week and then have to throw away because my reusable one broke.
During the first week I was able to go low waste at the very least. The first day the only waste I had was Kleenex, and honestly after the first day I realized that my constantly runny nose might be downfall from going zero waste without a reusable handkerchief. However, I was able to go without any other waste which I felt pretty proud of! The second day there was waste from plastic packaging around groceries I bought such as vegetables and meat. I was able to use my reusable bag for my groceries which was a pretty great, and I was glad I was able to have items that gave me leftovers so I could avoid more waste from cup noodles and eating out.
During the second week I was able to go one day completely waste free! Which was awesome to finally have a day without any waste, I didn’t have any grocery shopping and I didn’t have to go anywhere which helped me avoid take-out which was great! I was also able to avoid any sort of microwave/cup noodle food that would have throw away packaging. The second day I wasn’t able to go waste free because I did have to go grocery shopping, and I completely forgot a reusable mask and bag. So, I had a mask, two plastic bags, and then packaging around the groceries such as boxes and plastic wrapping. The third day I was out of food options for lunch as everything I bought the day before was for dinner preparations so I had waste from one cup noodle however this was still my only waste for the day which was pretty good! This week went well despite forgetting reusable items causing me to create waste, but I still felt good about the three days!
The final week was by far the most difficult and most wasteful honestly as I had a small amount of waste all four days. The first day I did have some plastic packaging along with some English muffins that had to be thrown away due to mold that grew on the English muffins. The second day I caved to my eggs benedict craving and had a packet of hollandaise sauce, which did create the waste due to the packet itself. Otherwise, things went well the second day and I was able to avoid any other waste. The third day as well as the fourth day were real kickers however as we went to find a new plug for my shower drain. Our dog really needed a bath and we had to be able to create a bath and the old plug I had broke so I knew waste would be created from that. On the third day the plug I bought was actually too big so I went back to exchange it on the fourth day, due to the packaging there was waste created from both plugs on both of those days. While out dog got a bath, I had two days where I wasn’t able to go waste free.
In terms of how these three weeks affected others it didn’t really affect the people in the two-households I’m in, my significant other knew about the changes I was making and actually helped me out quite a bit by making sure when we had dinner when everyone else had a paper plate that both of us had regular plates that didn’t have to be thrown away. He also helped remind me throughout the day when I was writing things down what waste I had created. For everyone else they didn’t really change their habits or try to do the project with me, which I figured would be the case.
The biggest thing I struggled with was simple creativity in how to achieve going every day without waste, at some points it felt impossible unless I didn’t do the days consecutively, which I don’t believe was a requirement, but it would be easier to “cheat” in a sense with having a day off in between days.
I knew trying to go waste free would be difficult, and throughout the project I kept thinking back to a documentary I had seen about a couple who went on a “no”-buy (it was more of a low-buy as they did still have to buy food) and a no/low-waste year. They documented how they made their own toothpaste and, would reuse all of their bags and when they got food from the deli section they would ask the people behind the counter to put it in one of their plastic bags instead of giving them a new one. I also thought about how this was pre-coronavirus and how much I think coronavirus would not allow them to do certain things (such as asking people to put items in an already used plastic bag). Also making sure that you always have a clean mask, and how at some places they actually will make you take off your fabric mask and put on one of their paper masks (I experienced this at my doctor’s office back in January). So, it is harder in some respects to go waste free during this time period due to being forced in certain situations to create waste.
Although I only had two days overall of going completely waste free, this project maybe had the opposite affect on me as I thought it would; I ultimately thought it would make me realize how much waste I create and how I need to cut down, but it actually made me realize that on a normal day I create very little waste, I normally have some piece of waste from either cup noodles or grabbing something through a drive through, but that’s ultimately it. I think I already paid a lot of attention to my waste habits due to the other classes I’ve been in that have focused on these subjects. As I get older and get a full-time job and my own house I will probably create much more waste than I do currently, having more responsibilities and larger living spaces tend to do that. However, things could change in our society throughout my adult life where it’s possible to not create so much waste while still living a full life, and hopefully this is the case.
Writing Sample 3:
In Fashionopolis by Dana Thomas she explores the world of fast fashion and how it came to be and those who are challenging it, as well as trying to change what we buy and how we spend our money. She talks to people within the industry such as Stella McCartney, Yael Aflalo, Ella MacArthur, and many others. She goes around the world from fashion shows in Paris to actual sweatshops in Bangladesh, to see just what the fashion industry looks like today on all levels. She discusses sweatshop disasters with people working in the sweatshops at that time, to discuss what exactly goes on in sweatshops and how people are treated. Dana Thomas herself has been a fashion journalist for years and this isn’t her first book on fashion, throughout this book with the interviews she does and what she describes, it’s obvious from the start she has a lot of credibility on this subject.
To start off the book, she meets with Raffaella Mandriota, who is the fabric expert for Mary Katrantzou a women’s fashion designer who has created dresses for actresses for events like the Cannes Film Festival. She accompanies Mandriota to the Première Vision Paris which is a three day event where professionals look at the world’s largest selection of fabrics, leathers, and other goods. The days are long and hundreds of orders for different swatches are placed by Mandriota. After her time with Mandriota, she discusses her time with Mariela Martinez who is an organizer for the Garment Worker Center, a non-profit company based in LA. Martinez states that roughly 45,000 people working in sweatshops and only half of those people are actually documented: “About half were on the books and paid at least the California minimum wage, which was then $10.50 an hour. The other half were undocumented, sewing garments for US based brands in clandestine factories for as little as $4 an hour. “ (Thomas 47).
Thomas then goes on to poke holes in the idea of “Made in the USA”, because that does not mean that the clothing is actually made in the US, as there are some items that are made in other countries but on US bases, and that parts of it can be made in the US while other parts are made elsewhere. With the idea of the US sweatshops there is the idea that just because it is made here doesn’t mean the workers are getting treated fairly. On the economic scale some of the biggest fast fashion companies in the world are making billions a year, while others working the “slow” fashion industry aren’t making as much but are still making millions and still doing great! Most of the people she talked to who were in the slow fashion industry had had economic hardship at some point with investors pulling out of their brand, to working for a fast fashion company and ultimately being laid off. The biggest economic point came when she discussed Levi’s and how during the 90’s and early 2000’s they had to shut down all of their US based factories, “The hit to employees, and the towns where Levi’s had operated for decades, was brutal…” (Thomas 86). Environmental issues were discussed, surprisingly, very minimally: there was discussion of a canal where wastewater from the creation of jeans had been dumped, “The water now resembled tar, and its stench made me want to vomit,” (Thomas 81). There was some discussion with the pesticides that used to bed used on cotton plants, and how harmful it was for both humans and animals. The biggest point where environmental points are brought up is with her discussion with Stella McCartney. McCartney has her own fashion line that is built on sustainability. She discusses how she cut out PVC (a type of plastic that is used a ton in the fashion industry to create shoes, purses, jackets, etc.), as well as discussing most of what her line is made out of and how it’s sustainable (Thomas 164).
The system of the fast fashion industry is a really cradle to grave type of system, instead of cradle to cradle like Thomas discusses with slow fashion. The making of the clothing starts at the sweatshops or factories, within fast fashion normally the people within these sweatshops are underpaid and in horrific conditions, the buildings are normally not up to code and disasters have occurred and killed thousands of people. However, even before there is the sweatshop there are the companies and fashion designers. Normally, fashion designers show off designs that will ultimately get stolen and made cheaper from companies like Forever 21 and H&M. After these designs and ideas are either created or stolen, the company either has to hire people to make the clothes, or they have to outsource and find another company to handle the creation of the clothing. Normally, within fast fashion, a company will outsource, and this is where the sweatshops come in. After the sweatshops, the clothes are either held in warehouses or shipped to stores across multiple countries. Many of the clothes made end up in landfills, either by the company or by the consumers, while some companies will donate clothes or try to reuse the fabric for future use, many will still end up in a landfills.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book and learned a lot, I had known about fast fashion and how terrible it was on almost all levels. I didn’t know about PVC or events like the Première Vision Paris. I did know that faux leather and faux fur is plastic and are environmental more harmful than real leather and fur. I thought it was interesting getting to read her different interviews with people of all walks of life from Stella McCartney to people who used to work in sweatshops in Bangladesh. However, there was one major problem I had with this book: affordability. All of the people she talked to in the slow fashion industry didn’t seem to have a grasp on what the average person could actually afford or be willing to spend. I saw very minimal talk of affordable slow fashion options. At one point she talked to Yael Aflalo who stated in an interview with Allure “ ‘I design for this waitress girl,’…’She made $200 in tips the night before and she is obsessed with the dress…’ “ (Thomas 127). I don’t know a single waitress who would spend their tips on a single dress, most waitresses I know have to have multiple jobs in order to survive.
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