Dec. 11, 2018

Dear Editor of the Manhattan High School Mentor:

Re: your article “Recycling to better environments” by Features Editor Hannah Heger, Hannah makes an impressive case that improper disposal of food waste is very, very bad.

She does not say where proper food waste disposal receptacles can be found and recognized.

Are food waste containers identified as food waste receptacles with clearly seen and recognized signs?

Are waste containers that should not be used for food waste clearly identified by a sign: “NO FOOD DISPOSAL?”

Are the containers clearly identified so, at first, hurried of course, it is clear what the container is for?

How about special containers for food waste disposal be painted an easily identified color, only for food waste disposal? If the food waste containers are bright yellow and the non-food waste disposal containers are all dark green, the difference could be easily seen. With the words FOOD WASTE DISPOSAL or GENERAL DISPOSAL (NO FOOD), it would make it easy for students to make their disposals properly.

But all the hand-wringing and lamenting of Hannah serves no purpose other than her writing how terrible “improper food waste disposal” is.

Since many humans do not have enough to eat, it would have been nice if Hannah had commented her hopes that students would avoid wasting food — taking too much, then throwing the rest away.

There is an interesting “Law of Supply.” It is said: “There is enough of everything for everyone when they need it. But for everything that is taken in excess of what is needed then, there is a corresponding lack for someone else.”

In other words, more containers for thrown away food mean that others are dying for not having food.

I am sorry your interest is in food being thrown away in the proper container rather than admonition: “You are fortunate to have enough food. Please don’t ever waste it.”

Best wishes,

Helen Roser

(age 96)