Now that sanitation workers are back on the job and the labor strike is over we have an opportunity to toss out more than household waste that’s been accumulating on city streets and private driveways.
Hopefully the memories of bags of garbage languishing uncollected prompt a moment or two of self reflection.
How often do we examine what we consider garbage? In the disposable, transactional, service-at-a-snap cocoon created for our own comfort do we bother looking at what we contribute to the clutter and trash heaps, or do we just purchase then toss everything aside expecting someone else will come along to deal with our discards.
If we were forced to keep our trash inside the home for a month would we be more mindful of what we bring home from the store or sent to us via delivery van?
Would we let that half used container of cottage cheese go bad in the refrigerator if we knew that the runny curdled mess would sit at the bottom of a dank plastic bag, along with the eggshells, coffee grinds and sticky lunch meat that had been pushed to the back of the fridge behind the half-ripe avocado pressed against the nearly empty pizza box?
Or would we make sure to have used every bit of leafy green and drop of dairy in an effort to make sure nothing went to waste or created an inescapable stink in our home?
Would the cardboard boxes and plastic bubble wraps be allowed to clutter the corners one 2×2 square foot at a time (I know you’re not breaking down your boxes, I see them bursting to escape out of the recycling bins you drag out to the curb) or would we trudge down to the store and purchase the day planners and make-up kits in person, eschewing the plastic carry out bag we are charged 10 cents to buy?
(I know the pandemic has us rethinking our in-person shopping habits but judging by a glance at restaurants, bars and trips to the market, it seems the pandemic has ended for a lot of you).
It’s good to have sanitation workers back on the job. But hopefully this last month of garbage accumulation has given us an opportunity to examine what we consume and throw away in our lives, leaving workers with a little less to pick up on collection day.
