An Idea

  Yesterday, after I had attended church with my family, we went to a diner since we did not have breakfast previously, before attending church. When we got there, we sat at a table, ordered, and waited. We ordered what we usually would order at a diner: I would get chocolate chip pancakes with sausage, my sister got waffles with orange juice (which I drank, for the orange juice came with the waffles, so she ordered chocolate milk), and my parents got pancakes and... I don't know, I was barely paying attention. After all, I was just being chill, sitting back, listening to music that was playing on my phone with my headphones, waiting. But there was one thing I'm aware of about the food that's worth noting: every menu item we ordered came with another thing.

  Once our food was prepared, we enjoyed it as soon as we could when it was brought to us. I certainly enjoyed eating my buttered chocolate chip pancakes with maple syrup, and then switching to eating sausage, and some orange juice sips here and there. After a while of my family and I filling up our stomachs, we eventually reached a point where we were practically full. There was quite a bit of extra food, which is why I mentioned that previously.

  The only leftover piece of food I remember seeing is just a chunk of my chocolate chip pancake and some egg that my sister left on my plate. But instead of having it saved, my parents asked the waitress if it'd be thrown out. So it was, and we just saved some of what they got.

  I looked at the food, and thought, "How often does everyone do this? How many go to diners and end up not finishing the food they order, and instead saving it for later? Will they even finish it after?" I thought about how many visit restaurants each day, and how much of them save their food after being completely filled from it. Well, according to a quick google search I made, around 150,000 pounds of food are wasted every day. WOW, just think about it. That's almost as much as the weight of a space shuttle. That makes me wonder, "Why can't we actually use all that to help something else?"

  I remember scrolling through YouTube Shorts on my iPhone a few weeks back and watching one about how South Korea is making its restaurant customers throw out their waste in a machine when they finish eating. The machine weighs how much food the customer is wasting, and makes them pay a specific amount depending on how much they're throwing out. From that, they're actually doing really well financially. But I have an idea to do that everywhere around the world, just without the waste... and without the money.

  Without a doubt, the food could be decomposed and turned into really anything that contributes positively towards the environment. The world could really use some of that to really help with the environmental problems. Plus, I'm sure we could also use some more green in the world. Besides the decomposition idea, we could also have restaurants save the wasted food and donate it to homeless shelters at the end of the day. I know it's a pretty basic idea, considering that probably all of us have done something like that when we come across someone on the streets begging for money, but it could still be pretty effective.

  I get how it sounds strange that I'm discussing this. Usually, I don't worry about world problems. In fact, I don't often get to hear about them. But god, every time it just gets to me and comes to my mind, I can't just help but to worry. We definitely could use a little help with things like these, so here I am slightly discussing a resolution to it. But yeah, that's about it.

-Anthony "Salteh" S.