I tossed that little fruit bag of unrecycable in the trash bin along the way in today, not even stopping my bike. Not a lot of trash but I did feel a ping of guilt knowing it’s going to the trash mountain in the Pine Bush. Stuff I probably would have burned if I had a had truck, but I realize it’s kind of silly as most people just have trash pickup and send most of their garbage to the landfill with little thought. Never done that, and I’ve always given pause any time I’ve paid to put garbage into the compactor at the transfer station or even just the trash bin at an event or the office. It’s in some ways kind of silly, as I realize soon enough my old truck will be smashed, it’s interior and gauges shredded, and buried on a similar garbage heap. Just like everything else I own, from my bike to the kayak, my furniture, appliances. Some of scrap metal may be recovered, some of the wood burnt, but most of it’s going on the garbage heap. Seems so trifling to save a wrapper to toss in a fire to keep it from the landfill, when I’m landfilling so many other big things I can’t burn.
I was noticing more garbage dumped along the way – big old garbage sack dumped at Erie Boulevard, another garbage can where somebody had dumped a bag of household garbage in a park can. Not a little bag, a big one. I would never dump garbage that way, but a little plastic bag occassionally probably isn’t the end of world, it’s an interim solution until I get my new truck. It seems like it’s just one garbage heap after another I ride by on my mountain bike. Mountains of garbage tower over our city. My current office is next door and overlooks the old city landfill, I could see two other modern dumping grounds when I worked downtown in Alfred Smith Tower Building. So much about modern society is about buying shit and producing more and more garbage. I say those things while I look at Ford SuperDuty pickups. But I don’t do Amazon or E-commerce and really try to keep my purchases minimal both so I save money and so I have less garbage to get rid of which is more challenging without a garbage landfill pickup subscription. People say I’m a cheap bastard, burning and dumping my crap when I could afford elsewise, but I have a real problem with the orgy of consumerism.
Never liked landfills one bit or the orgry of thoughtless consumerism that goes along with. Once in a rarely while I’ll use a garbage can, and do bring the unburnable cans to the transfer station or my parents bin for recycling. But I’d much rather save stuff for starting and perking up fires, as not only is it fun to burn, then you know what’s going to happen to it, and within 5 minutes of tossing it in a rip-roaring fire it’s gone. Not sitting in landfill for a million years, maybe a bit of a chemical smell depending what I’ve tossed but quickly dispersed into the wilderness.
Too many people subscribe to trash service, they pay a fee, they pack their bin full every week, pretend to be virtuous by washing out their plastic bottles, then watch thoughlessly as the garbage is packed into the garbage truck and hauled off to the nearby dumping grounds. The garbage never crosses their minds after that point. Maybe it’s like that too when I burn it, ignorant of chemicals released into the air and soil, but I also dig through the ashes and pack out anything that doesn’t fully combust. Truth is while their are all kinds of chemicals that make up modern garbage, thanks to industry, the worse offenders have been phased out from most uses, like that ever stinky and toxic polyvinyl chloride and rubber compounds. Polyethylene plastic is hardly nuclear waste or even the chemical soup found in the barrels of Love Canal.
I think too much about trash. It’s maybe because I know about the lies of recycling and consumerism, and that the plastic bag you throw away today is going to end up on the heap on outskirts of town. There is no away. I am aware how toxic and problematic plastics are, but are still superior alternatives to single-use glass and metal that while in theory is more recyclable, often is just used once and landfilled. I know if I buy it, and don’t burn it, I know where it’s going to end up.
That said, I’m also aware of dioxin and furans, the plasticizers and dyes used to make packaging attractive at stores. All things that go up into smoke or into the ashes, washed into the soil and environment all around when you burn it. Really the best option is just to buy less, and buy in bulk. Eat lots of beans, fruits and vegetables that come in minimal plastic. Recycling and recycling labels are mostly a scam, so just assume even if you do put it in a blue bin somewhere, it has a good chance of ending up smashed and on the heap on the outskirts of town. Yes, the ash contains a chemical freak show of chemicals used by industry from chromium to arsenic, but most burnt farm trash pits haven’t caused any problems pushed into the hollows and dumped in the woods once covered with rock and dirt.
When I have my homestead, I’ll continue to burn as much of my trash as possible. But I’ll also try to avoid as much packaging as possible, but inevitably there are feed bags, wrappers, and other discarded materials that come with running a homestead – and just plain living – buying off-farm supplies. I’ll recycle whatever scrap metal I can and avoid buying as much stuff as possible, as money not spent on trash is money you can use elsewhere. And I will get beyond these days without a vehicle, back when I can have nights in wilderness, fires, and do whatever I want. While I despise the burn ban, I do what I do, and I hate landfills and trash more generally even if I do get a good fire for a few minutes as the papers and plastics are converted from trash into carbon dioxide, water vapor and heat – along with those toxic residual chemicals. I’ll keep buying as much minimally packaged foods and supplies as possible, keep using my existing worn out equipment for as long as possible, and just try to avoid making as much trash I can whether it’s landfill or fire bound.