Thinking About Garbage

This is our farm. I love it, it’s beautiful. This is what I see out my kitchen window every day. Ever since I read Kimi Harris’ post about plastic, I’ve been thinking about our land differently. Kimi said, imagine if you had land (we do) and you planned to pass it down to your children and grandchildren, but that (the catch) you needed to put all of the trash you throw away on your land.

Think about it! We don’t have to in our country, because every week a big noisy truck comes and magically takes away the stinky garbage and we never have to deal with it or see it again. If we think about it (big IF), we justify it because we believe it will eventually decompose. Yes, it will–but plastics will take hundreds of years (at least) to decompose.

So, now I’m thinking about our beautiful farm…and Ruby’s pull-ups in the trash. And saran wrap. And plastic toys–even the cheap ones that we find at garage sales (you know, the ones you buy for 25 cents but they eventually–usually sooner than later–end up in the garbage?). I definitely wouldn’t want to see these things outside my back door, or polluting our well, or…I can’t stand the idea of my grandchildren and great grandchildren playing on plastic-cluttered land.

I don’t have an answer for all of this–I just want to keep thinking about it…I’m thinking things like–would it work to cover food with a paper towel instead of saran wrap, and then burn or recycle the paper towels? Do I make all of my own cheese? Because it all seems to come in plastic (besides the more expensive wax-wrapped stuff, and is it really all wax?). And what about Christmas this year? What will the packages look like, once they’re unwrapped? More plastic? More potential trash? Good thoughts…Go read Kimi’s post. Spend a while at her blog. It’s pretty cool. 🙂