“Trash Talk”
Notes from the field on the United State’s disconnected waste management system
In the United States, we take our trash out to the curb weekly to be picked up by a man who dangles off the back of a truck. This man in the city maintenance suit then takes the collected waste to a dump or landfill. The trash goes into a pile, into an incinerator, and in some rural areas under the dirt creating a small trash hill. Where I live in Maine, I have seen many trash mountains. In the wintertime children sled down them like they are a proud part of the Himalayas. Some trash we create does not simply end up in artificial sliding spots or in city incinerators. The EPA estimates that fifty to eighty percent of waste from technology that we put in “recycling” often ends up traveling overseas to eastern Asian countries to be broken down into precious metals. These neurotoxins are breathed into workers lungs like a fairy dust drug–minimal pay being the high.
In Varanasi India, the trash is taken out street side every morning — unbagged and in a large pile on the corner. Fast forwarding to incineration, the neighbors will light the unwanted items on fire until they no longer have to see what they are disposing of. This practice saves the fuel resources, time, and money of public waste services. When I first saw this happening in India, I was horrified. Plastics were being burned in front of my eyes and cows and dogs would come and fight over steaming crumb packets and sleep in the ashes each night.
Throughout the day these piles are where food scraps are placed for disposal and where these animals eat. This Indian waste management system is in your face. It burns your nose with melting plastics and literal rotten eggs. The United States has become too dissociated to the waste we create. Varanasi’s disposal system is not always environmentally healthy, but it stands as a visual connection to waste. The United States is five percent of the world’s population, yet it creates thirty percent of the world’s garbage.
In the Uttar Pradesh region, people throw their trash on the streets. This is because no system outside of neighborhood burnings is available in most areas. The high humidity decomposes garbage, leaves, and animal wastes quickly. The natural wastes can visibly be seen going away, but underneath lies plastics that will not biodegrade. These products of a developed and factory-born culture are becoming more common as global consumption is on the rise. The difficult part of these trashy issues in developing nations is the idea that they need our system. It seems impossible to step into a culture that has been thriving for centuries and offer a new, more difficult way, to dispose of their waste. Through global education, trash can become apart of our natural cycle. If we simply practice awareness in our daily lives, trash and consumption will reduce.
Previously published in Where There Be Dragons 2015 Best Notes From the Field
