Why do we choose to make such a visible problem as trash invisible? Trash stinks. Trash is ugly. No one enjoys looking at mounds of garbage out of their kitchen window. Many species are drawn to the smell and/or texture of garbage. They view it as a source of food. Most people, however, do not feel this way. Anything that disturbs their view of suburbia is an unwanted eyesore. I am not saying that I revel in the thought of seeing piles of trash everywhere I look, far from it. What I am saying is it seems as though the human race as a whole will go to great lengths simply to avoid seeing a landfill, even when they know it is there. “Out of sight, out of mind.” This seems to be the common theme in regards to undesirable happenings in our culture. In short, I believe the issue of garbage is made an “invisible” one simply because too many people would complain to their city, county, or state governments if they could see the public landfill that they were contributing to every week out their living room window while they’re watching TV and eating chips from a bag that will be in that landfill in less than a week.
For every rule however, there is an exception. Some people do seek out dumpsters and trash cans for anything ranging from food to lawn chairs. Be it out of necessity or simply in an attempt to stretch a paycheck as far as one can, it seems a fairly common practice in some places.
What is it that makes our species so hands-off? After we haul the garbage to the curb as far as we are concerned it no longer exists. Thinking like this, however, is the sort of thing that leads to a landfill outside of New York city that can be seen from space. But the good news is it cannot be seen from the city! So glad the people generating the trash don’t have to look at it! What happened to people composting their biodegradable trash? Recycling things such as cans, bottles, and newspapers? It seems these things are all but nonexistent of late, and I cannot help but wonder how large (or small) a difference it would have made over the last couple of decades if only a few thousand more people were more resourceful about using or re-using things that they regarded as useless trash.
As the article in “The Believer” states, “It’s an avoidance of addressing mortality, ephemerality, the deeper cost of the way we live. We generate as much trash as we do in part because we move at a speed that requires it. I don’t have time to take care of the stuff that surrounds me every day that is disposable, like coffee cups and diapers and tea bags and things that if I slowed down and paid attention to and shepherded, husbanded, nurtured, would last a lot longer. I wouldn’t have to replace them as often as I do. But who has time for that? We keep it cognitively and physically on the edges as much as we possibly can, and when we look at it head-on, it betrays the illusion that everything is clean and fine and humming along without any kind of hidden cost. And that’s just not true.”
From this I derive that the point that Robin Nagle is trying to make is simple this: We generate more trash than we think. It doesn’t bother us because we do not look for it. When we do see it, it takes away our feeling that everything is clean and healthy, and that can be cause for self re-evaluation, something that very few human beings are fond of. It brings to mind the old adage “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” If you can’t see the trash, it won’t bother you.
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