Time is money, Waste is money
Benjamin Franklin wrote ‘Time is Money’ nearly 300 years ago, and even in 1748 that was probably an old thought. We all have limited time to trade for money, to buy the necessities of life. If we learn additional skills, such as software coding or medicine, we can work to increase the amount of money we earn per hour of our time, but it’s still the same trade of time for money.
Waste is also money. The more items we throw in the trash, the more money we throw away. All resources had value when they were first extracted- for example, food has value when it’s harvested, packaged, transported and sold. Any food that is thrown away takes a portion of the original costs straight to the trash. And with it, we’re throwing away that value that was placed on our time, never to be seen again.
But what if we didn’t throw away the food itself- what if we ate all of the food? What if we only threw away the packaging that the food came inside? The packaging originally had a cost, even if we didn’t see it. The vendor paid for the packaging, and built that into the cost of the food. They certainly couldn’t sell packaging and food at below their food cost and stay in business for very long. So that packaging had cost, you paid it, and then you threw it away. Again, you just spent your time, and threw it in the trash.
How do we avoid throwing our time in the trash? Reduce waste. Avoid buying food items with packaging. Soft drinks, for example, generally have pennies worth of sugar in flavored water, and we pay our time for packages that quickly go in the trash. Bottled water doesn’t even have the pennies worth of sugar included; water falls free from the sky- in bottled water, most of your time/money is spent for the package that quickly goes into the trash.
Lets try a little calculation, to see what this waste of time/money could look like. Let’s say you drink bottled water that on average costs $1 per bottle, and you drink two bottles per day. You could get that water for close to free from the tap, or free from the sky, but you don’t. We’re going to ignore tax, because this is my imagination, and I can ignore taxes here, if nowhere else. So you pay:
$1/bottle * 2 bottles/day * 365 days/year = $730 per year spent on bottles of water
Now let’s say you earn $10/hour. We’re going to ignore income taxes here, because that also makes me happy, in my imagination. And round numbers are easier; this is below the currently proposed minimum wage rate of $15/hour, but not an unreasonable estimate for many essential workers right now:
$730 per year spent on bottles of water / $10 per hour wages = 73 hours spent a year of your scarce, precious time so you can throw water bottle packaging into the trash. If you work 40 hours per week, that’s almost two full work weeks to pay for plastic bottles that go into the trash. Stop it. Get a cup, and refill your cup from the tap.
Benjamin Franklin would also have told you to never buy bottled water. It creates so much waste. Maybe you could spend that $730 this year instead on a new tablet device that you need for school to use for studying, get good grades, and eventually earn more than $10/hour. Or put that money towards actual fresh food, or towards medical copays for your mom. There’s always a need, but trash isn’t a need.
Save your time for things you care about. Look around for areas of waste, and pay attention to what ends up in your trash can.