Trash Fairy Part 1

Trash Fairy Part 1:

Heart Pains Caused by Plastic Bottles

My kitchen sink has slowly filled up with dishes for days now.  Despite the fact that I am fairly lazy when it comes to house chores (just ask my Ex), this is absolutely not the reason for my lack of action…well this time anyways.  In actuality, I have for some time now been tenaciously attempting to reduce the amount of garbage I create each day.  Naturally, I just finished reading a chapter in the book Garbage Land, and the author made mention of dish soap that is much like a bar of hand soap in that is doesn’t require the use of a bottle; it is in bar form and simply wrapped up in paper at the store.  One might presume that I have far too much time on my hands to find myself even considering such things, but take a moment to think about what a throw away culture we’ve allowed ourselves to become.  I personally think that the lack of thought behind our actions is much more frightening than the over analysis of things.  Very seldom do we think of the resources, energy, and frequently pain that come from objects that have such little purpose in our lives and can be so easily circumvented.  Let’s break down this dish soap bottle situation as this is quite indicative of the tragic route our culture has taken with the mass consumption and mass throwing out of crap. 

There are roughly 8 million people in NYC alone.  Let’s say that the average household has 4 people.  That means that there are approximately 2 million households.  Suppose a family goes through 1 bottle of dish soap per month.  That’s roughly 24 million bottles in a year that must be carted away and dealt with.

Okay, okay!  Some might say: “Nicole, you’re being neurotic.  We recycle here so relax because it’s not even going into landfills.”  To this, I would politely respond:

First, as New Yorkers, our households are fairly decent at separating for recycling (Go us!).  The issue is that often times, sanitation is inundated with recyclables and therefore does not have enough space in the trucks or the ability to process so many recyclables.  Sadly, many of these items get dumped in landfills anyways.

Second, by recycling this bottle (and not reducing….come on Folks it’s Reduce, Reuse and then Recycle), we are further extending its carbon footprint.  There is the energy cost and resources to make this bottle then there is the energy cost and resources to ship this bottle in order to fill it with the product plus the energy cost and resources to make the product and actually fill the bottles.  Then there is the energy cost and resources to ship said product to the store in order to sell it.  Then there is the energy cost to get this newfangled soap to the home.  In the world of bottles, this is only its midpoint.  Getting monotonous and redundant, huh? Now that our dishes are squeaky clean, we no longer need poor Mr. Bottle so we cast him out into the recycling bin.  Now we need the energy and resources to cart them to transfer stations, which are generally located in primarily poorer minority neighborhoods where children are made to suffer from the smog and pollution that we exacerbate by recycling rather  than simply reducing. 

True story.  I taught math and science to a seventh grade last year in the South Bronx.  I did a unit on trash and compost.  In the beginning of a lesson, I asked each of my classes to raise their hand if they themselves have or know someone very close to them that suffers from asthma.  Nearly all students in all three classes raised their hands.  That’s a scary fact.

Now (I bet you thought I was finished with Mr. Bottle’s journey. Nope!), we must spend more time and energy on carting these recyclables to recycling facilities where even more energy and resources are spent on recycling Mr. Bottle.  If you believe in re-incarnation, fingers crossed that Mr. Bottle was good in his past life and will be turned into something much more worthwhile and useful.

I would like to take this final moment to plug humans as a species.  We are remarkable and capable of incredible things when we put our minds to it.  Why ever are we being so stubborn when it comes to trash?  We have not advanced our practices in years.  In fact, NYC pays other states to take our garbage away.  Really?!  That’s the best solution that our great city has come up with?  I say we take on this challenge and start being the New York City that I know and love.  Let’s get it together and set the stage for other cities and hopefully eventually countries to follow.   

Let’s go NYC.  Let’s Reduce then reuse and then recycle; let’s do it in that order!