waste production and the young professional

[arethinn]

In general I enjoy working in a library; now that I have gotten out of the madhouse computer lab, it is a quiet environment, and of course I have easy access to books (although our collection is not that great).

However, it was not until working in Technical Services that I grasped how much waste a library produces. I shudder to think how much waxed paper alone we throw out (the backing of the many labels that go on the many, many items). Then there's the fact that we print out the item record for every new item when it is first entered - a cart full of books is 50-70 sheets of paper, bam. (We do re-use what we can but there's just no getting around the fact that we use a lot of new sheets, partly because the large numbers produced in this fashion are not themselves reusable.) At the end of the process that goes in the recycle bin (this is California, after all), but still I feel very bad about doing it in the first place.

Myself in particular, I discard tons of unrecyclable packing material (such as styrofoam padding inserts and shrinkwrap that B&T puts around stacks of books to keep them together in transit). I'm to the point where I tear the plastic window out of every envelope and throw just that in the trash, so I can recycle the actual paper of the envelope. Don't even get me started on what happens when we discard items that aren't saleable in the book sale. Overall the waste production is just hideous. I don't want to do this for a living. I used to have stress every day; now I have guilt.

This brings me to the conclusion that one characteristic of my hypothetical ideal job would have to be that it in fact cleans up or reduces waste somehow, rather than generating it. I want to work somewhere that has a positive environmental impact, or a minimal one, instead of an obvious negative one.

This got me onto the thought-thread of "what other characteristics would an ideal job for me need to have?" and I can think of several:

• Physical activity. 40-hour work weeks make it difficult to get exercise outside of the work day; there's hardly any time left.* Putting the exercise somehow inside the work day seems like a good way to handle it. After all, one of the reasons so many Americans are overweight is the prevalence of sit-down jobs of many types, rather than daily physical labour of some type like most people had to do years ago. I'm not talking about wanting to be a labourer here, but just something with a lot less sitting down than I currently do.


• Minimal interaction with other people. I like to be by myself, or have only a few people I work with. Having to deal with a large number of people every day drives me crazy, especially if they are not fellow employees, but "customers" of some type.


• Aforementioned negative relation to waste production.

So what should I be? A park ranger? *laughs*

* - Of course the better solution is to somehow not have to work a regular job, whether by making a living at something scheduleless and unconventional (e.g. art), having sufficient investment income, managing to live entirely off the land, etc. (and the really truly better solution is to change the entire culture so that no one has to have a "regular job" unless that's what they truly enjoy), but short of that...

Comments

[tiggrrl.livejournal.com]

Physical activity, minimal interaction, you could be a delivery person, although the driving and transport of packages doesn't fit the environmental model. You could work in a grocery store produce dept. i did for a while, and you do tons of lifting.

[starlightforest.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't I be rather underpaid vs. my education, though? Not that it's related, just that it seems odd to take a bachelor's degree and go be basically a stock-boy with it, heheh. That's something I would do out of necessity rather than choice, I think.

[tiggrrl.livejournal.com]

Ok, yes, granted, but it's not that easy to get an intellectually challenging job with a lot of physical activity in it. Yep, I'm thinking ranger, but you'd have to go back to school for that, you know.

[netdancer.livejournal.com]

Come join me in Landscape Architecture! I'm not kidding...design Greenspaces...

[starlightforest.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know. I'm not against the idea - 5 years of break has, uh, un-burnout-ed me on school, but I am not sure about the expense (as I refuse to take on any student loans). Such a thing wouldn't be a trivial decision, for sure, and not anything likely to happen before I'm 30, but then, a lot of people change careers in middle life these days...

[starlightforest.livejournal.com]

Do you do a lot of walking around, or something?

[aleeceh.livejournal.com]

A Ranger is basically a cop these days. They carry a loaded weapon, write citations, arrest people & book 'em, crack down on idiots breaking the rules, ... the whole law enforcement schtick. If you think working with colleagues and customers is bad, try drunk & beligerent park users. (Go read some of jasonr91745's accounts of his shifts if you want examples.) No thanks, not me. The job of a "Naturalist" (working the park kiosks, services, maintenance, etc.) is lower key, but you still interface with the public, not all of whom are good little campers.

I'm with you on this pondering what would constitute my ideal job thing, though. (And on thinking that something including more physical activity would be a big help.) I really need a new job, and I think very likely a new career while I'm at it. If only I knew what I wanted to do with myself!

[starlightforest.livejournal.com]

A Ranger is basically a cop these days.

Uck, no.