"Away"
I ran out of cereal this morning, and threw the empty box away. We recycle what we can, but unfortunately the list of what our curb-side service will take doesn't include cereal boxes. We also compost what we can, including any veggies from our CSA subscription that go uneaten for too long. Everything else gets a one-way ticket to that magical place called "away."
But where is away? Is it really some magical place like Heaven, or that farm where so many urban dogs go to chase rabbits? I'm guessing plenty of people will bristle at my comparison of this place to Heaven, and rightly so. Nobody in their right mind would equate a landfill with the ultimate reward for a pious life. But if the landfill isn't magical, how can it hold so much stuff without filling up? Well, it can't. We're dealing with trash in essentially the same way as our ancestors going back thousands of years: we dig a hole in the ground and put the trash in it. When the hole starts filling up, we cover it over and dig a new hole. The problem is, there are many, many more of us today than in those golden old days of easy trash disposal. And, we produce truly prodigious quantities of trash.
Just saying that we produce a lot of trash doesn't really give you an idea of the scope of this problem. Here are some fun facts:
We are nothing if not consumers. According to the book Natural Capitalism, 80 percent of what we make is thrown away within six months of production.
On average, each American produces 4.6 pounds of trash per day, for a total of about 251 million tons (502 billion pounds) in 2006. Only about 82 million tons of this trash was recycled, or about 32.5%. (source: EPA)
For every garbage can that hits the curb, the equivalent of 71 garbage cans of waste is generated in the extraction of raw inputs and production processes for the things we consume. (source: GrassRoots Recycling Network)
As of 1998, the Fresh Kills landfill (the dump for New York City) stood 180 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty. Talk about a monument... (source: New York Times)
We're almost literally awash in a sea of garbage. So, how do we change it? Unfortunately, considering the way the business world works and the sluggishness of new information permeating into the consciousness of lawmakers, we're left with little opportunity for real change from the top. It's unlikely that the captains of business and our congresspeople will wake up one morning, inspired, and reverse the patterns that got us here in the first place. Nor should they; these are two servants of the public attitude, after all. Business serves the market (okay, it also manipulates it, but a population that's awake is harder to lead by the nose)...if a company engages in offensive practices, we can boycott their products and starve them out of the market. Government is meant to serve the public by codifying prevailing attitudes and values of our society into laws...if they fail to do this, they don't have to be re-elected.
The point is, if we want the world to change, we have to change it. This means making incremental improvements again and again. You can start by buying some reusable shopping bags and using them. Plant a little vegetable garden and rediscover how good fresh tomatoes taste. While you're at it, setup a little compost pile for your garden. Maybe make a phone call to your local CSA and sign up. Or, next time you're out shopping, simply keep in mind what you will wind up throwing away when deciding what to buy.
Hell, you can even reuse the grounds from your morning coffee.
Look around; the possibility for change is nearly limitless. Find something you'd like to fix, and fix it. Don't wait for someone else to do it for you.
Resources
Portland Metro Region website, page on waste reduction. link
EPA Municipal Solid Waste website. link
Coopette.com: Emma Cooper's gardening website, a good source for gardening tips. link
Technorati Tags: environment