Are we garbage?
Garbage is what a “discard the Earth” culture does best. It’s not that we want so much, buy so much, or even that we think material goods are the secret to happiness, it’s that we create garbage at every step.
We do not take responsibility, or in other words — personal empowerment — to deal with life differently. But, we can, and we will, if we see what is happening to everything glorious that is threatened.
When we buy a new item, it is, these days usually the composite of several materials. Some of those materials are mined, such as fossil fuels, metals, and minerals. For example, in the creation of cement and concrete, thirty percent of the pollution produced comes from the energy consumed in producing material, seventy percent of the CO2 is produced when calcium decarbonization is required. (This is a high heat process to decompose the calcium carbonate in order to manufacture cement clinker).
To understand how this affects the air and water you need every day, think of the cement needed not just to build the warehouses that store tons of stuff, but the outlets that also sell, the offices, the roads, the creators of the packaging, the distribution trucks, their technology and equipment, and so forth. We are all links in this garbage train.
There is much that the consumer needs to be aware of that we contribute to in the invisible consumption that goes into everything you buy. Most of the pollutants, waste (garbage) is never seen by you, but the impact very much will be felt by every living being. And, cement is just one item needed to get you new gadget from inside the Earth to into your pocket. Also, please consider the lumber, vehicles, plastics, gadgets, energy produced, and energy released at each step.
This summer, 2021, we saw record heat and wildfires, floods, and refugees. It’s not going to get better until we get better at managing waste — and wasting less resources.
This last year, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, do-it-yourself homeowners took on home renovation and remodeling projects. The price of lumber soared, and the above costs in energy, to get it into the home-bound hands soared as well. Then, the materials that were replaced required more garbage to dispose of in landfills.
If we truly care about a quality world for our offspring — or just because we don’t wish to see the biosphere deteriorate needlessly — we would devise ways to re-use lumber, concentrate “home” centers where people could leave and salvage materials, and promote creative innovators that find ways to upcycle, save, reduce and re-use every thing that we now treat as garbage.
Some of these exist in small scale, but we must push harder for the brands, and big box stores and low wage employers to pull some of the weighty trash they are, in part, responsible for generating.
Another huge source of waste in the bigger, but often invisible, supply chain is shipping. Here in the Seattle area, there is dismay that Puget Sound Orcas — whales that are already endangered in the region — will be affected if they dredge up decades of toxic substances in order to make a space for the giant cargo ships that allows an equally giant crane to disgorge cheap goods from China and elsewhere.
Most folks will also recall the stressful clogging of the Suez canal by the Ever given, a leviathan so huge that it stopped commerce and distribution for weeks, upsetting entire supply chains and economies.
One really wonders why we need so much stuff, and why, our great grandparents found unique and simple pleasure at receiving something new. Especially after the Great Depression, a shipped parcel was so rare, special, and appreciated, that it was treated like a gift from both Earth and artisan. These days, far distant industrial sweat shops are now coupled with giant factory warehouse distribution centers. We get tons of stuff. We get it fast. It is questionable whether artisan quality durable goods are even considered today, when we can instead purchase fast fashion and cheap and disposable things that we scarcely notice, much less value.
Don’t be a slob blob
In our modern homes a lot of garbage and garbage thinking is the norm. This is because we slowly over time lost the values and morals — but most of all the wisdom — of the old ways.
Where I grew up the motto was: Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without. As kids we did not appreciate the planetary perfection of this annoying truth. But both of my parents were so impoverished as children, that they learned the value of any material item was in its quality, beauty, practicality, durability, and even its function.
Earth, the ultimate home economist, who is most wise about all economy, creates mass abundance. Seeds, leaves, insects and other organisms, are produced daily. But, unlike our abundance, Nature’s is always recycled into fuel, food, and nutrients. We learned through industry ways to also produce massive volumes, but ours becomes pollution. We churn out and dump more than eight million chunks of plastic into the ocean each and every day. It becomes killing machines rather than nutrients. The GPGP, Great Pacific Garbage Patch, is bigger than the state of Texas, and growing. It’s really a monster, and should be called the Slob Blob to remind us how our thoughtless inaction brought it into being.
To avoid being a slob blob, to feel empowerment and choice, learn to produce less garbage by every means that you can. Avoid non-recyclable packaging, switch to bulk foods and jars, use steel, glass, paper, and non-hybrids. Only buy what you need, and don’t throw away anything that could be repurposed.
Hate stinky trash? Never throw organic waste anywhere but the compost bucket, and you never have to smell the stench of garbage again.
Let’s all be of higher caliber than methane producing maniacs.
There is one area where it’s good to be a slob. Grow a wildflower patch or native green rather than trying to pesticide, herbicide, or mow your way to a perfect lawn. The bees, butterflies, and birds, will not only dazzle you with buzzing, chirping thanks, but will also make life possible for food, water, soil, and people. Rather than mowing madness, tie a hammock and lay back to relax. Unplug and unwind.
When you use cloth rather than paper, you should be proud to save forest lives and human lives. When you avoid waste, you align your head and heart with nature and nature offers a vast abundance of rewards for mental, physical and spiritual health.
Our lives, our choice
This is our garbage, but we generally do not think in terms of being responsible for it. Like the true horror of a slaughter house full of pathogens for the next big pandemic, a refusal to see the problem is not by accident. The brands that profit from such pollution don’t want you to feel guilty or concerned about it, or you may start thinking, pointing fingers, or worse: boycotting their products.
Neither of these approaches has been too successful so far, but a middle path is to demand better coverage of externalized costs — that is the costs paid by dead marine creatures, seabirds, loss of biodiversity, dying reefs and more.
If we are not trashy people, we don’t have to live trashy lives.
For now, our lives are still our own in many remaining places, and we should claim our lives, our choices, ourselves, and our planet as worthy. If we value Earth we will protect one another and all splendor, vitality, variety and quality of life and beauty forever.
This post was previously published on Medium.
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Photo credit: Tim Mossholder on Unsplash