trash conquistadors
so taboo. Who would have thought direct human byproducts would ever become such a social stigma..
“Don’t touch that Timmy, its trash.” That nagging phrase is all too fresh in our memories whenever we catch a whiff of a particularly rancid half empty can of tuna bubbling in the corner of the trashcan. What is it with trash that has created such a putrid image for itself? Perhaps if we explore the “Botany of Disgust”, rather than desire, we might find similar reasoning for why waste has become the bane of the human condition, the wretched monster of Frankenstein. Hidden away, tucked in the darkest pockets of the earth, it has been left to fester and ferment in our minds. And thus it has accumulated, lining the outer walls of our organs, coating our cells with its viscous film. And rather than purge—we proliferate, stacking pile upon rotting pile until we can finally greet Zeus on Mt. Olympus with a mouthful of feces. It’s true; the way we produce, manage, and in essence utterly avoid dealing with the industrial-trash-complex is sickening. And yet, so much is wasted. And I mean, really wasted. Perfectly good materials that could easily be recycled into re-use. I am reminded of an old adage— ‘one man’s e.coli infested toilet scrubber is another man’s toothbrush’, or something like that. I was never very good with American expressions.
However harsh these words may sound, the reality exists that trash. is. unstoppable. We cannot simply “stop” creating it. Well not in totality. And if that is truly the case, than why fear and loathe something so certain? Perhaps the notion of such omnipotence is indeed what is most terrifying, in that the inevitable creation of waste is out of our control. It is the manner of its production and care (to avoid the word “disposal”), that is all in our hands. Toxicity breeds toxicity, and carelessness gives rise to purple mountains of dukie.
Perhaps our ability to manage the byproducts that we as humans, consumers, earthen habitants, (insert hippy phrase here), etc will inevitably produce begins with us no longer envisioning Trash as our deaf, dumb and severely deformed offspring.
