A few weekends ago my friend Ben came over to help me clean my second bedroom as I'm in the middle of looking for a new roommate. Well, let's just say we didn't get past the closet. As I sorted out Christmas and other gift wrapping stuff, we came across a box of shopping bags I had stored away. Small, medium, and large shopping bags were separated into piles, along with a bagful of wrapping tissue paper. I swear his face looked like I scratched my nails on a blackboard with each piece I told him to save. The big box I took out went right back in, this time just more organized. Sorry Ben! Thanks though!
As I get older, the more I hate and feel disheartened about throwing stuff away (I think it's more than Catholic guilt these days). I imagine all the trash going onto landfills, decomposing and releasing toxins in the air, with each mountain of trash becoming exponentially larger everyday. All I can think of is climate change, global warming, unbearable heat (100-degree weather in LA this week), wrinkles (aaargh), and more intense nose bleeds for me (not good!).To illustrate, I was in India a few months ago, and witnessed the unfortunate members of their society living ON landfills. And there were several of these garbage dump villages all over New Delhi. Kids play on top of mounds and mounds of waste as their parents,
sitting under a makeshift tent, look on. Bums scurry about and digging through different areas of the piles for something to eat to appease their unfathomable hunger. All this, happening right next to 5-star hotels which throw out precious garbage (for the bums), as air-polluting cars drive about in every chaotic direction, avoiding the cows who lounge in the middle of the roads while flapping their tails to-and-fro to swap away flies and fan themselves from the heat (they are considered sacred and left to do as they please, giving new meaning to the phrase, "Holy cow!").I certainly don't want to live close to, or much less on, a landfill. My fears and worries are that of the burgeoning awareness which has happened in the last few years: the realization of our planet's mortality and ergo
the possible suffering, and perhaps extinction, of humankind. Farfetched, you say? Some species of animals are already extinct or on its way to extinction. Apparently the government is delaying the official confirmation of declaring polar bears an endangered species, as there are those in office who want to drill for oil in the same area these poor bears live on (can't drill if an endangered species live on it). But I digress.The problem with American society in the last few decades is our ever-growing disease of conspicuous consumption and desire for consistent convenience. With the raising consciousness of dire planetary and human consequences that may very well become realities, the whole "trend" now is to go green. But it shouldn't be a trend. It should be a LIFESTYLE.
These days, before I throw anything away, I do a double take and see if I could find use for that objet de trash again. Or definitely recycle it, if it's recyclable. On a past blog, I wrote about finding new ways to reclaim your waste. Paper products are the biggest percentage of waste. Imagine all that junkmail, credit card offers, catalogues, mailers, etc.! I keep the return envelopes and re-use them to enclose my invoices and put them in clients' packages, as I found out the hard way that you can't use them to mail directly (the post office won't let you, even if you cover up or scratch out the pre-printed address, bar codes and such). Also, I wrote about going to Chinese (or Japanese) food establishments and taking the wooden chopsticks home to clean and reuse. In addition, my Mom breaks toothpicks in half and doubles the lifespan of each pick.
From my grandmother, what I thought was once crazy, saving the styrofoam trays your meat and fish products are packaged with, is now a clever way to serve breakfast biscuits onto. I even clean, save and reuse disposable food packaging like those salad take-out bowls from McDonald's (they come with covers), or tv dinner trays you can microwave. My boyfriend even saves and reuses plastic cups (my Mom and Grandma do too - can you say, brownie points???). Who needs to buy dishes and utensils?!? Anyhoo, my friends and family think I'm crazy. But you already knew that.So albeit my kitchen might look like a hodge-podge of junk, it's stuff that I've managed to save from its inevitable fate of getting dumped on a landfill. Every little thing makes a difference. The problem with our economy in the last few decades is that we've been producing and consuming in a linear pattern, each year progressing faster than the years before. Resources get wiped out and environments are polluted to manufacture products. Consumers buy them, and then throw them away, left to decompose in varying rates, affecting the global climate (some plastics don't decompose for *hundreds* of years!).
Our resources are only so much. And the planet can only take so much. Instead of the linear consumption materials economy, we can be more responsible and create a closed-loop process. Others refer to it as cradle-to-cradle.
For my clothing company, eventually I'd like to do a complete cradle-to-cradle design and manufacturing process. It's such a specialized niche that it would be hard pressed for my business to survive as demands for this kind of product is low at the moment, not to mention the eco-friendly technology needed to make it a reality (solar energy, biodiesel, and such). Not sure if mass retailers are willing to support such an endeavor as it is challenging at the moment for eco-apparel in general right now, but at least specialty boutiques might be more open to the idea...? And in time, as a consumer, after your multiple use of the product, you have the responsibility and earthly obligation to recycle the product again, or donated to someone else to use. Because you, not landfills, are at the tail end of this divine cradle-to-cradle process. Or you can keep it forever and be a pack rat like me...
P.S.Must-see: THE STORY OF STUFF. Just half an hour of your time will change your life. *Please* make an effort to see this!!!
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