Issue 1: How do we reduce food waste?
According to latest research, the world produces 17% more food than it did 30 years ago, yet almost half of it never reaches our stomachs. In the US alone, 63 million tons of food are wasted each year, and currently accounts for around 21 percent of landfill volume.
Architecture/Code
Reduce barriers to composting by placing more composting bins in public places and businesses. In concert with education campaigns (below), this might increase rates of composting.
Standardize and simplify food expiration labels terminology. Current food labels use a range of terms form “sell by” “use by” “display until” and “best before.” These labels generate consumer confusion and unnecessary food waste. Selecting one or two common labels and a standardized date format could reduce confusion about when food is safe to eat and when it needs to be thrown out. However, some sort of policy/legal action would likely be required to ensure compliance by companies.
Redesign kitchen appliances to discourage waste, for example, a fridge that automatically calculates time until expiry by scanning for type of food, expiration label, and monitoring for signs of spoilage (e.g., mold). The fridge would move soon-to-expire foods to the front of the fridge and send reminders to consumers about when their purchases will expire. It might also suggest recipes that utilize soon-to-spoil foods. This would increase the likelihood that foods are consumed before they go bad.
Norms
Introduce educational programs in schools to raise awareness about food expiration and encourage composing. Launch public campaigns that stigmatize food waste (a la “Don’t Mess with Texas”).
Law
Loosen food quality requirements that focus on appearance, since these rules disqualify perfectly edible but unsightly produce from sales in supermarkets.
Require companies streamline expiration date labels, as proposed above.
Markets
Marketize “ugly food” by delivering disqualified produce at reduced rates. Though if legal food quality requirements were loosened, as proposed above, the supply of ugly produce would diminish.
Issue 2: How do we fight the “epidemic of loneliness” in the US?
In a recent survey, nearly half of Americans report sometimes or always feeling alone. Besides being existentially torturous, loneliness kills. In fact, it cuts life expectancy by the same amount as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. It is also associated with a greater risk of heart disease, depression, anxiety and dementia.
Architecture/Code
(I struggle to approach this issue as a code problem. After all, we are more connected than ever. Generation Z (18-22) reports the highest levels of loneliness, despite being heavy social media users. (And fwiw, social media use is neither strictly positively or negatively correlated with loneliness). Somehow, despite ambient and ubiquitous connection, we miss each other.)
Design more mixed-use and open spaces in cities. Since living alone is correlated with rates of loneliness, cities could incentive co-living apartments, co-ops and inter-generational housing. Urban planners could encourage traffic-free streets, public squares, parks and other spaces to facilitate interaction. In addition, creation of recreation centers, community centers, and other non-commercial “third spaces” could increase meaningful interaction in cities.
Redesign social media platforms to incentivize getting off of them. (Of course, this is antithetical to their business model of more time -> more ads -> more profit). Provide prompts that encourage meeting up with, calling, or texting friends we interact with frequently on Facebook. Foreground nearby events and meetups on the home screen. Could designs with with rebranding/marketing (i.e. changing norms) promoting the use of social media to coordinate in-person activities. It’s worth noting that Facebook recently began a public campaign with the slogan “The best part of Facebook isn’t on Facebook. It’s when it helps us get together.”
Norms
Make long lunch breaks and volunteering cool again. Given that most adult individuals spend most of their waking hours in the workplace, workplace culture could be a target of intervention. For example, allowing longer lunch breaks could facilitate group outings or conversations. Encouraging regular volunteering activities during work hours could foster a sense of shared purpose and connection.
Teach about the health risks of loneliness and share interpersonal skills that foster connection. Incorporate data on loneliness into school health curriculum, alongside educational programs to foster greater interpersonal skills, conflict resolution, active listening, and other forms of “social intelligence” in students. While this will not cure the loneliness problem, it might teach students to value social interactions and equip them to navigate healthy interpersonal relationships.
Law
Fight overwork and economic oppression. We might overwork as a cause of loneliness in the US, where 85.8 percent of men and 66.5 percent of females work more than 40 hours per week. Americans often struggle to make ends meet – working long hours or multiple jobs – let alone to spend free time with family and friends. We might introduce a law setting the maximum length of the work week. (Fwiw, at least 134 countries have laws setting the maximum length of the work week; the U.S. does not.) Let’s shorten the damn work week, raise minimum wage, and provide people a basic level of economic security so they can spend spare time and financial resources on shared connection.
Require doctor support. If we frame loneliness as a “health epidemic,” one can imagine medical interventions to identify and intervene when the problem of loneliness arises. We could mandate that primary care physicians inquire not just about a patient’s physical health, but mental health, including loneliness. Federal government could mandate better coverage for mental health counseling, since therapists could help patients identify possible paths to overcoming loneliness.
Markets
(As I complete this assignment, I realize more and more that market solutions to social problems is my blindspot…)
Issue 3: How can US students spend more time outside?
Exposure to nature benefits children in myriad ways. Studies indicate time in nature is correlated with better school performance, creativity, higher level of fitness, and less depression and hyperactivity. A controversial campaign claims that children now spend less time outdoors than prison inmates.
Architecture/Code
Redesign routes to school. Redesign the routes to and from school to increase outdoor exposure outside of class hours. Teachers could lobby municipal officials and urban planners to build sidewalks and bike lanes along common routes to school to encourage greater walking and biking to and from school.
Monitor outdoor time. One can imagine a personal tracking device that measures how much time children spend outdoors (either through UV measurements, or GPS tracking that monitors activity outside known buildings.) This data could be transmitted to parents accompanied by clear metrics about if their children are meeting “outdoor time” targets. These parents will have been targets of educational and health campaigns (see below). These parents might then use this data to lobby schools to change policies around recess (see laws below). However, it is unclear if a “techno-n
udge” approach would be effective (since, as we have learned, fitness trackers largely don’t work.) In addition, I could imagine several negative unintended consequences to what ultimately is a technology of juvenile surveillance (which, for brevity’s sake I will not elaborate here).
Norms
Target parents with campaigns about the benefits of nature and play. Perhaps pediatricians could be encouraged to enquire about time outside during children’s visits. These campaigns might encourage efforts to monitor time spent outside, and raise public concern about the issues and civic engagement with current laws that unintentionally threaten recess (see below).
Law
Kill the Common Core. Despite research showing recess boosts academic performance, schools face pressure to reduce time outside in favor of more class time to prepare students for Common Core state exams. To reduce the “time squeeze” on recess, policy makers could scrap Common Core standards altogether. Or, they could incorporate physical fitness and/or environmental subjects into the Common Core, thus creating incentives for learning to take place outside. Alternately, they could keep Common Core and lengthen the school year in order reduce time pressure and the risk of eliminating recess.
Markets
Honestly, I don’t know. Past market-based efforts to reform schools are fraught with issues, the core of which being that they tend to exacerbate existing inequality in the US by preventing. I am a bit loathe to explore market mechanisms in this case. While several private schools have revolutionized outdoor education — such as the
Mountain School, at $28k a semester — they remain inaccessible to the average American.