A Throw-Away Culture
“The planet will be here for a long, long, LONG time after we’re gone, and it will heal itself, it will cleanse itself, ’cause that’s what it does. It’s a self-correcting system. The air and the water will recover, the earth will be renewed. And if it’s true that plastic is not degradable, well, the planet will simply incorporate plastic into a new paradigm: the earth plus plastic. The earth doesn’t share our prejudice toward plastic. Plastic came out of the earth. The earth probably sees plastic as just another one of its children. Could be the only reason the earth allowed us to be spawned from it in the first place. It wanted plastic for itself. Didn’t know how to make it. Needed us. Could be the answer to our age-old egocentric philosophical question, “Why are we here?”
Plastic… asshole.”
-George Carlin
It has become increasingly clear to me that we need to evolve in the way we dispose of waste. When I say waste, I am referring most directly to what, in our daily lives, we consciously dispose of. What, if we were to look in our garbage cans at home or our town’s land-fills, we would find. When we begin to direct our consciousness towards these actions, we will start to realize the absurdity of this system. We will begin to question why we have bags of garbage to be collected weekly. Why these bags are filled with recyclable materials, precious metals, food waste, etc. Perhaps we will question why we are the only species to create such waste; and realize the absurdity of not only the quantity of it, but the quality as well.
Part of the reason we are so lackadaisical about our disposal of waste is that we are completely disconnected from it. It enters the garbage can, and then the garbage truck, and we never see it again. We are not aware of the process that it is undergoing nor the effects it is having on the natural world and living systems in relationship with it. Likewise, we are not aware of the personal benefits of more intelligent and thoughtful action. In actuality, we are in a whirlwind of an exponentially rapid technological and conscious evolution and are just beginning to regain our footing. We, as a society, have lost sight of the natural flow of the natural world, and are beginning to notice the consequences of this. As any good mother would do, the earth is inviting us to learn and grow.
So how do we change our ways? The great thing about this issue is that it is tangible and clear. Everyone in this country can go zero-waste (or close to it) within the systems that we already have. It is just a matter of making the conscious decision and effort to do so. The beauty is that, naturally, as more and more people begin to change the paradigm lifestyle, the systems that cater to us will shift to fit the niches. As we begin to recycle what can be recycled and compost what can be composted, as well as form habits of conscious buying and limited consumption, we will watch businesses shift towards recyclable, reusable and compostable products. This is the natural law of supply-and-demand economics and acts as a reminder of the power the public has on the shape of the economy and ecology.
When we zoom out and consider the current system from as objective of a view as we can, we will most likely conclude that it is unsustainable, economically and environmentally unprofitable, and, frankly, hubris. Now, from the same lens of observation, imagine a trash-less society. One that maximized resource usage. One that benefitted economically from new jobs, cheaper production of materials, and a drastically reduced ecological footprint. Which society would you choose? From this perspective, it seems unimaginable to engage in any other type of system. It is an investment – transforming landfills into recycling plants, introducing widespread municipal composting and recycling services, and shifting from disposable to sustainable products. The shift in model requires an active effort from each of us. We have the power to limit our own waste, help those close to us do the same, and approach our local governments with passion and coherency to help them make this necessary and obvious switch in paradigms.
In acknowledging and re-shaping our collective outlook on waste, I encourage us to not only acknowledge the physical implications but the intra-personal implications as well. Noticing how the natural flow of the universe is expressed through each of us, as conscious vessels for the infinite, we can see that our ‘waste’ model does not correlate to this natural flow. The way we breathe, the way we birth and die, the universal laws our beings fundamentally obey without the interference of the thinking mind, are the essence of our beings. We cannot exhale any more than we inhale, we cannot be born without also eventually dying — naturally, it is against the divine balance of the universe to create more waste than what we consume. In addressing this imbalance on a practical, karma-yoga level, we are internalizing a profound re-instatement into the natural flow of the Universe.
Left Behind Hardangervidda, Norway
Check out my template for inspired action in this field. This is a movement that needs to happen; Let’s be the ones who get it going!