When the word came down, I was positively giddy: Soon, I would get new trashcans. I realize this is clear proof of how easily I can be entertained, but to me new trashcans are a big deal.
If you stop and think of all of the things you throw into your trashcans, week after week, year after year … on second thought, don’t think about it. It will make you woozy. Anyway, the prospect of a clean, new trashcan was uplifting. A new trashcan, like having a colonoscopy, gives you a brand new start.
Besides, my old trashcan was showing its age. There were cracks in the sides where it had been inadvertently dinged by a car (mine). The lid had been MacGyver-ed into extraordinary service with a piece of plastic wire. It was testimony to rough use and bad driving and was routinely deposited on the curb for all to see.
But I wasn’t the only one getting a new trashcan. It was to be a citywide do-over. Apparently, my neighbors were as excited as I was about the change because when we received word that the collection of used trash collectors would begin, every Old Reliable was raced to the curb. On collection day, panicky phone calls were made to the neighborhood association. “I think they missed me! What do I do now? How does one dispose of a trashcan?”
How indeed? What does a company do with an entire city’s-worth of trashcans? I don’t know, but such is the way with all garbage. We throw things we no longer want in our homes into the trashcan. These things are picked up by a crackerjack refuse team and taken … I’m not sure where, except that it is somewhere else.
I need to pay more attention. Just like all matter, when we throw things away, they do not cease to exist. They’re just moved to that elusive “somewhere else” to deteriorate (I hope), and it stands to reason that if we continue to shunt things there, week after week, year after year, the borders of “somewhere else” will reach your own back fence.
Hence, the concept of recycling, old things processed into new. Great idea, right? My city thinks so, too, because along with the new trashcan we received a new recycling can, a big blue wonder that, properly filled, will put us on our way to a cleaner planet. If someone can sort it all out.
Being a chronic organizer, it pains me to throw all of my recyclables, paper and soda cans and appropriately numbered plastics, into one giant bin. On recycling day, the big truck comes and takes all of these items to a different “somewhere else” to become “something else.” At the other end of the line, I picture people wearing plastic gloves having to sort all the items into separate recycling process containers. I mean, you can make plastic water bottles into carpet and decking and pens and all kinds of things. Soda cans can become more soda cans, paper can become more paper, but soda cans sent to the paper plant won’t work and vice versa. The scope of the sorting process worries me, but then, I am not a waste management professional. I’m sure those good people have all that worked out. (Again, I hope.)
Trash is an ongoing problem and I am committed to doing my part, separating my refuse into two “somewhere else” categories and wheeling the cans out to the curb on their appointed day. And I won’t hit these new cans with my car. (I hope.)
