2020 Essay Contest Finalist

Entry by Clara Zabik

Processing Earth Materials

Throughout our day, earth’s materials are processed in various different ways but we are not always aware of how much our uses can affect the earth. Think about some of the ways you’ve processed earth’s materials, and how they’ve affected those around you.

One positive way that we help process earth’s materials is by composting, which can prevent a lot of different items from going straight into landfills and instead, using them to become healthy compost for things like gardens. It’s hard to say what the best kind of composter is because the situation is different for everyone. However, some possible methods might be a community compost, a worm bin, or a wood bin. Composting is a great way we process earth’s materials positively.

Unfortunately, there are also numerous ways that we negatively affect the environment, that you may not have thought about before. For example, the transporting of foods that are shipped in from places far away instead of grown locally. There’s a lot of negatives to this, such as lower quality because of the transport time, and the overwhelming amount of fossil fuels emitted from refrigerating the products. There’re better alternatives to this issue, like buying locally grown food. Not only does buying locally support small businesses, but also eliminates lots of the issues brought about by long-distance food transport. A lot of foods that aren’t normally grown locally now can be with special practices such as certain kinds of greenhouses or planters. Consider these things for your community today.

Earth’s materials are used every day, no matter what, but it is up to you to decide how they will be processed. How will you use earth’s gifts?