I can honestly admit that we don't own enough house or property to hold all the trash I generate in a year.
I remember hearing a story from someone, I think it was my sister and husband, about some visitors from another country that they had staying at their house. My sis and family would put stuff in the trash, the visitor would pull all or some of it out. In their country the things my sister tossed would have been valued and re-used in some form or fashion.
In this country, the things they pulled out of the trash wouldn't have been accepted by a large majority of our poorest.
We are a spoiled nation and I'm right up there at the top of the spoiled heap.
When I feel like I'm losing control, like life is pushing me in directions I don't care to go, I clean. I fill up trash bags. I toss things. It makes me feel like I'm doing something, like I have at least a little control. I don't go wacko about it, but I do like the feeling I get when I fill up a bag of trash. The more bags, the better.
Yes, I know it might be strange. I'm sure there's some psycho-babble term someone has coined for the sense of satisfaction a person might get from cleaning, organizing and tossing.
I know we in America generate a lot of trash. A lot of the stuff we consider trash isn't anything more than stuff we've grown tired of having. We're too lazy to take it to the local Salvation Army.
By the way, that reminds me... I almost said take it to the Goodwill store. I thought Goodwill was a charity, a thrift store with money going to the needy. Not so. It's a for-profit store! I was surprised when I read that little tidbit!
OK, back to trash....
I haven't finished reading the article about the guy who saved his trash for a year but I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I could out-trash him. That's not necessarily something to brag about, but it's true.
We need to be better at recycling. We need to be better about buying what we need and not buying something that will just end up being tossed 'cause we're tired of it. We need to be a lot of things we're not.
As with all things, there isn't a simple solution. We've all read stories of the rip-offs in recycling. There has to be a market and it has to be cost effective.
If we stop buying frivolous things, if we stop filling up trash cans, how will that affect industry? Jobs?
I'm sure if I thought more I could come up with other areas that would be detrimentally affected if we changed out buying habits to decrease the amount of trash we generate.
Oh man, just glanced down and noticed my office trash needs to go out... see ya... here's the article:
Calif. man saves year's-worth of trash
BERKELEY, Calif. - Ari Derfel leads a trashy life. He just wants to remind everyone else that they do, too. The 35-year-old Berkeley caterer said he has saved every piece of trash he has generated over the past year to see how much garbage one person creates...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071231/ap_on_fe_st/odd_trash_man
No comments:
Post a Comment