Where is “away”?

It’s not just about carbon footprints and global warming.  Or indoor air quality…one of my favorite topics I’ll address more later. 

A friend recently reminded me that “there is no ‘away’”.  What gets “thrown away” into our bins goes somewhere, and sticks around for a long, long time.  And maybe, just maybe, it drips out, or breaks down into other chemicals, and gradually gets pulled down through cracks in the earth, into places like our water supply…yum.

Not so long ago I was quite pleased by the fact that, on average, our weekly rubbish bag was really quite small – maybe even just a quarter full.  Not bad, I thought.  In Minnesota we typically put out a full (albeit a bit smaller, and less condensed) bag a week – and sometimes two.

But then I was reminded of Donnachadh McCarthy in an article in the Big Issue.  Barry and I visited his house last year during London Open House.  The Big Issue article states that “during the course of 2008 he threw away only half a dustbin full of rubbish.”  I guess I have some work to do!

p.s.  For those of you who don’t know about the Big Issue, it is sold by homeless people who are trained to sell it and make money from selling it.  I like to buy it for a few reasons.  1) It supports a homeless person who is working to get back on his/her feet.   2) It has decent articles.  3) I like to think that by buying it, it makes other people think about buying it, which helps the person I’m buying it from more.  The seller should be wearing an official badge.

Photo by D’Arcy Norman.