Dreams to Garbage
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I woke up to the sound of what sounded like a garbage truck rumbling down the road and realized that I had forgotten to take out the garbage the night before. Nothing gets the body more alert in a faster manner. I jumped out of bed, threw on the sweats and raced outside to drag my half empty can out to the curb in a pouring rain, the first I've seen in three or four months. Fortunately, there was no garbage truck in sight and my neighbor's trash can across the street was still unemptied which means the truck hasn't come yet. Normally it comes in mid to late morning, well after I am up and about. But on the days I forget to set mine out, it inevitably comes at 4:30 in the morning... without fail. Now that I have mine out, it probably won't come to nearly noon.
Garbage in my neck of the woods, and I suspect elsewhere, is becoming a problem. I'm not much of a consumer so we typically don't have much garbage. I set it out weekly though because it I don't want to have problems with raccoons or other animals getting into it as I see happen elsewhere around town on my drives on pickup day. Others have their cans completely filled to overflowing and have purchased other bags with special tags and have those filled and stacked alongside the trashcan. It is quite appalling at how much trash is generated.
When we drive to the urban jungle, the road from my life to it leads us past the landfill for the county it resides in. When I was a child, it was just a flat stretch of ground with a giant hole dug into it where they dumped the garbage and bury it. By my teens and early 20's, it had grown to a small hill. These days, it is now nearing the mountain size classification, at least by Iowa standards, and stretches off into the far distance. I no longer see any machines on it as they are off on the back side out of sight but if I could, they would be specks that I must squint to identify.
I blame it on two things mostly, consumerism and packaging. Shopping at places like Walmart and others, has conditioned us to want everything for the cheapest price which not surprisingly means the cheapest made. We go through things at an alarming rate and then just toss them in the trash. Packaging is also an issue as everything comes wrapped in plastic and nestled in Styrofoam. My wife got a Pilates exercise machine for Christmas this year and it was unbelievable how much Styrofoam and plastic were necessary to get that to my front door. With patience and time, I was able to fit in in the remaining half of my garbage can not normally occupied but had I been like the Jones family down the street, I would have had to buy two or three tagged city bags and stacked them along side the can.
When does this all end? After we meet the same fate of Sarah Sylvia Cynthia Stout?
I had to Google the verse - "Sarah Sylvia Cynthia Stout" as I had never come across it before. I am sure that modern day people produce far more rubbish/garbage than our grandparents and great grandparents did. But who is to blame for it all? Is it us - the little people? Or is it the retailers whose focus is upon profit above everything else? Plastic pollution breaks my heart. Microplastics are now in all of us causing unpredicted issues for the future of mankind.
ReplyDeleteI think we all share the blame. We the little people for not demanding change and the retailers who aren’t being proactive about providing change. Microplastics worry me greatly too and we took a step backwards yesterday with the plastic straw executive order.
DeleteI have a bag plus a recycling bin our front right now. Especially in winter, I make an effort to put it out the night before, so I don't have to race out at 7, which is when pickup sometimes, but not often, occurs. In better weather, I don't want the garbage out overnight, but animals don't seem to bother it in winter. As for the amount, I think about it every time. TG for recycling, which helps a lot.
ReplyDeleteI have never had any issues with my garbage other than he occasional wind storm. At my previous house, any windy garbage pickup day meant coming home to a lawn filled with garbage. We were on the lee side of a small hill. Our current house doesn’t have that problem.
DeleteOur trash comes quite early, but I hate taking it out the night before because bears do get into trash cans that are not chained up.
ReplyDeleteFortunately raccoons are our biggest problem and I’ve never had a problem with them. I think they have much better sources of food around than my garbage can judging from their size.
DeleteI don't trust myself so I put it out the night before and have reminders everywhere. Retirement means I'm not always aware of what day of the week it is!
ReplyDeleteI’m getting to the point where I need to put an alarmed reminder in my phone calendar, the sole thing that keeps me on the right path from week to week.
DeleteI had to look up Sarah Sylvia Cynthia Stout!
ReplyDeleteIt is a classic. My dad used to recite some of it when I was little.
DeleteI think you know I consider plastic to be one of our greatest global concerns. That said, I still buy/use more of it than I should. I have tried to make changes, though, and I think every little bit helps. I'm also amazed at the overflowing trash cans I see up and down our road on trash day. Most weeks, we have so little that they don't even drag our can to the truck. They just reach in and grab the bag or two inside. Fortunately we have little trouble with animals getting into it. There's more danger of a passing vehicle clipping it, which is why I keep it farther back from the road than I use to.
ReplyDeleteWe try to just limit our consumption in general and buy more durable items to start with so we limit out disposables.
DeleteI reuse bottles and containers as much as possible. Still, there is so much garbage that will not decompose. Protective packaging that is much too big for the product with stiff hard plastic really take the cake.
ReplyDeleteWe buy a carton of sour cream that is good for a month, maybe two, and the package will still be around long after our grandchildren have died of old age.
DeleteI'm horrified by the amount of trash my family, personally, comes up with. Multiply that by billions of people... Ugh.
ReplyDeleteAnd we recycle, of course, but then I read things like a lot of the stuff you "recycle" never actually gets recycled. A lot of the plastic gets burned in some other country or out-of-the-way place. Etc.
Love Shel Silverstein.
I ponder the effectiveness of my recycling, having read the same reports. For now I still continue to do so in hopes at least some may be recycled.
DeleteMy daughter would have known immediately as that was one of her favorite books ...probably still is:) I know what you mean about packaging...seems like lots of it is to prevent theft!
ReplyDeleteI think almost all is to save money from theft, material cost or ease of packaging. At some point we need to figure out what it is costing our health and environment.
DeleteThings I wasn't expecting to do today: Look up Sarah Sylvia Cynthia Stout.
ReplyDeleteI wondered when I tacked that on, how many people had heard it before.
DeleteYou are right. Consumerism and packaging is making us slaves.
ReplyDeleteand destroying our planet.
DeleteI hadn't thought of Sarah Sylvia Cynthia Stout in a long time. Part humor, part child motivation! As you know I'm always appalled at all the trash I see on the city streets, and it seems like there's always more and more. Dave and I throw away one small bag of food waste per week, but you should see how much the neighbors throw out. It's incredible, and not in a good way.
ReplyDeleteYour posts on the subject always amaze me, especially due to the compactness of your neighborhood compared to mine which is sprawled out and lessens the visual impact of trash day.
DeleteYou're absolutely right, of course. Hawaii is now having a terrible time trying to find a place to situate another landfill. Nobody wants it in their neighborhood. We have very little trash every week. Our neighbor across the street does at times have to put their garbage in our trashcan though because they can't fit it all in theirs. Granted, there's just three of us there and 10 in the other house. Or maybe 12.
ReplyDelete