Waste — Blog — Healy Chen

That seems wasteful

As part of my daily language training, I watch plenty of Korean television. A big part of the world-popular Korean skin care routine seems to be the hydration masks. This one-time use piece of wet plastic you put over your face for about 15 minutes to add some bounce to the skin (I’m just guessing here.) Every time I see this on the tubes, however, I just think of how wasteful it is. Someone please ring up Greta Thunberg.

Think about it: if someone uses one pack per evening every single day, that’s a lot of plastic waste over the course of the year! Never mind the package the mask came in as well. Why is this okay when I have to suffer with paper straws here in San Francisco?

Wouldn’t it be quicker to simply spray the hydration onto the face directly? This is what I use. And the can is highly recyclable!

This isn’t a put-down on the whole of the Korean skin care empire. I too partake in a routine to keep my face from aging more than it already is, though I try to limit the amount of products. At some point the number of serums and toners and whatnot reach a point of diminishing returns. Besides, I don’t really want to spend 30 minutes after showering towards skincare. My showers are long enough…

My routine is simple: wash, product, then lotion. Wash is the same day and night. For daytime the product is vitamin C, then sunblock lotion. Night time the product is retinol, then regular lotion. It’s effective, and all of it can fit on one shelf in the medicine cabinet behind the sink mirror.

Out with the old

The problem with buying and replacing furniture is the waste that’s left behind. The sheer amount of cardboard and plastic that have no chance to fit in the ordinary household recycling bin. The old furniture that’s being replaced: how the heck do you throw away an old desk?

Part of the reason I’ve been hesitant to replace my desk and buy a couch (respectively) is dealing with the waste byproduct. I definitely do not want to spend the time putting the old desk on Craigslist and dealing with tire kickers. That thing has been with me since my end of college days, so I feel like I’ve gotten the full monetary use out of it already. Naturally, none of my friends are in need of a desk - we’ve all got our own.

The proper thing to do would be call the garbage collector and schedule a bulk pickup. Households around here get two of those for free, per year. Each time you get to throw away 10 bulk items. And the collector is militant about this: the workers will leave any item over the 10 count right out on the street. They wouldn’t even do you the solid of taking the bulkiest items. Hashtag PSA.

The improper thing to do, aside from driving to an empty highway and dumping the stuff to the side, is to have parents living in an apartment complex with large communal trash bins. All I had to do is ferry the old furniture - broken down, of course - and cardboard waste to my parents and have them dump it. This saves me the pain of storing the old stuff in what little space I have. No matter how generous my landlord is, the garage space is already rather full.

I’m the type of personality that the sooner something gets done, the better. Especially when it comes to getting rid of clutter. For a homebody like me, the home space is sacred, and must be kept pristine as much as possible. I’m glad this new furniture episode is completely behind me now.