Celebrate Garbage Day: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rethink

There are small moments in time that can have a huge impact on the way we see our planet. It shocks us for a second, but we soon forget and don’t do anything about it.

Here is an example:

As a sophomore in High School, I got to choose one job for a day. I chose to work on a garbage truck. To this day I still have no idea why I chose to be a garbage (wo)man for a day while all my other classmates were following their mom and dads to the Hospital in an ambulance or to court to be a judge. But I did it. I got suited up in some overalls and rode a truck around Central Florida. If you ever want to see how much waste a household makes in 2-3 days, ride around in a garbage truck. It’s extremely insightful and ever so frightening. I did this ride 20+ years ago and I still remember it as if it were yesterday. We drove around all sorts of neighborhoods, collecting garbage from the poor and the rich. Yes, there was a clear separation of streets and a clear difference in what gets thrown out. In both cases, however, quality didn’t count. In the end, it was all just garbage heading to the same place to sit and rot. To pollute our waters and our air. The most frightening part of the trip was when we drove out into the middle of nowhere and dumped all the garbage into a huge deep hole. It scared me so much I couldn’t even get a good look. I was so afraid that I would get sucked down into that endless pit of paper, plastic, diapers, pads, clothes, bottles, hangers, lightbulbs, anything and everything you can just throw away. That was 20+ years ago and I still wonder how deep that hole is now or on the contrary how high that pile of s*** can be. In any case it’s all still just worthless stuff. We obviously didn’t need it then and there is definitely no use for it now. But I imagine that is it still there.

Now I know I didn’t do anything about it then, but I wonder, what if I took my kids on that same trip. What if they ride a truck through the streets of our cities and saw where their garbage ends up? Would that make a difference? Would they think twice before buying that plastic pop up that serves no purpose. Would they really want party favors for their Birthday?

I went off to college not long after that trip and wanted to study environment sciences. I started a recycling program in my dorm. Unfortunately it didn’t last long as I couldn’t stay in college as it was too expensive, but it did push me to do something. So if that was just me, what kind of impact could Garbage Day have on a class, a community or a town? Nobody wants to look at their own waste so we hide it and pretend we are living in a perfect place. Open the landfills up to field trips and maybe just one kid will help reduce their household consumption or create a new way to recycle or upcycle their waste. Just one person can make a difference.