Fresh Fruit and the Environment
Environmental concerns might be the last thing on your mind when you are selecting a snack for work. While you might think about the environment when choosing a car or picking a light bulb, these usually aren’t concerns that come to mind when you are getting ready to have a snack. But the fact of the matter is that the snack food you select does have an impact on the environment in ways that are not always obvious.
Most, if not all, food that one would purchase “on the go” or out of vending machines is packaged. Often this packaging has even more packaging inside of it. The vast majority of this packaging is made out of plastic, and only a tiny fraction of it is ever recycled. Clearly, all this packaging is not a good situation. One easy way around this problem is to choose fresh fruit instead of pre-packaged goods.
While it may be true that it takes energy to produce food and that producing food requires water, the same can be said for any pre-packaged snack product you may buy. In fact, more waste is created with a pre-packaged snack than with a banana, for example. After all, the humble banana has its own built in packaging. When you throw a banana skin or an apple core away, nature knows what to do with it. If you don’t believe it, just leave either one sitting around for a few days. On the other hand, if not dealt with properly, the packaging from a bag of chips can be with us potentially for generations.
Fruit’s benefits to the environment are pretty clear. By choosing fresh fruit, you are quite literally producing less waste. Of course, fresh fruit has another massive benefit as well. Fruit is remarkably good for you. Fresh fruit is loaded with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, all of which work to keep your mind and body healthy and strong. Having fresh fruit on hand at work or anywhere you go makes a great deal of sense and is an easy way to keep the waste you produce at a minimum. As it turns out, eating fruit isn’t just good for you; it’s good for the planet as well.
Author: Wendy Visontay - Founder of Fruit at Work