What a wonderful post. The phrase “luxury of waste” certainly hits a nerve.

No such thing as a meat eating environmentalist. Stop fretting over a left over straw when you are supporting one of the leading causes of global warming and a HUGE contributor to the environmental crisis. seriously!

Maureen, OH

Hi Laura, This isn’t what your post is about at all, but I thought of it while I was reading about your work in Mexico and waste being a luxury. I lived for four years in a Mexican neighborhood in Chicago (I was also volunteering, but in the states).

Every spring, there would be (paradoxically in my Mexican neighborhood) an Italian Festival. Hundreds of people would spill into the streets, eating takeaway food and drinking merrily and riding rides and listening to music. Out front of my house was a very large, waist-high flower barrel, with plants in it.

The other volunteers and I sat on the stoop of our house one night, watching the festival, and marveling at how many white American people threw garbage in our flower barrel (thinking it was a garbage can). Some would even realize what they had done, and look for a moment like, Oops, crap! but then walk on their way, because there was already so much other garbage piled in there, so really, there was no point in correcting their mistake.

The funny (interesting) thing was that when Mexican people (our neighborhood was predominantly Mexican, and typically first or second generation immigrants) threw garbage into our flower barrel, they would immediately pull it back out, even with all the other garbage already in there. They acted reflexively, and consistently.

I’m sure this story has a moral, but I’ve never quite figured out what it is–something about our American values, and the perceived futility of picking up after ourselves… or something :) who knows? I just always thought it was a kind of funny story. Although, of course, at the time I was peeved that people kept throwing garbage on my plants.

But keep up the good work. And Beth, thanks for hosting guest blogs — this one has certainly set the bar high!

This is a great post!

I recently wrote about some ideas that are a bit related — check it out at http://fairandgreen.blogspot.com

I look forward to following your future posts and I hope you’ll check out mine as well!

All the best!

You are so right about the luxury of waste. I spent a week at a camp in Mexico, and the kitchen workers would take the leftover food from the serving trays home with them. It was a major perk of the job. You had better believe we didn’t leave food on our plates – how insulting would that be for them?

Now that I have a preschooler the waste drives me crazy. My 4-year-old will grab the end of the toilet paper and run around the house. For her, it’s fun. Which I can understand, if I were 4 I’d probably also like streaming paper down the stairs. But I just see all the toilet paper that’s being rendered unusable. It’s a work in progress for us. Baby steps, right?

Wow Laura that is a wonderful post!

I have never thought of it like that.

Laura, fantastic post. Thanks so much for sharing!!

Waste is a luxury … it’s also embedded into our culture. It shouldn’t be so hard to live sustainably. It’s difficult because our society isn’t built for sustainability any more. Which sucks. But hopefully we can re-weave sustainable practices back into the fabric of our society.

I recently helped a friend clear out her deceased mother’s house (and her own childhood home) to prepare for an estate sale. It made me realize that even the things we most treasure ourselves end up as waste – even to those closest to us.

Of course waste is unavoidable and life would be pretty dull if we limited ourselves to only what we need, but a good thought to keep in mind when buying anything, plastic or otherwise, is whether or not it will be used over a period of time; whether it has long term value. If not, try for something that can be used long-term.

And your comments about experience in a foreign country are so true. It’s a good reason for study abroad. I don’t know anyone who has come back from such a trip without being shocked at how they had taken our lifestyle as normal because they had no basis for comparison.

What a great guest post! I definitely agree that “Waste is a luxury”. The one bright spot in the down turn of the economy is that people are fixing and reusing and reducing way more than they use too. Thanks for sharing Laura.

P.S. I would love it if you considered doing a guest post on my blog.

In the beginning chapters of, ‘A Tree Grows in Brooklyn’ the narrator talks about what it meant to waste in a time when things were scarce, it meant exactly luxury. She wanted to throw things away just to have that feeling like, it didn’t matter, that they had more than enough. When I read those words, those thoughts of an innocent young person, I was moved. Isn’t that strange? Wasting is an absolute luxury and is an absolute shame.

I agree that it is harder in different parts of the world to be “green.” My family has moved a lot because my husband is in the military. Laura, you have hit the nail on the head for me in saying that you are “learning that I can’t expect everyone to care as much as I do, but that they do care in their own way.” I think that is one area I have a big problem with. I am trying so hard at my house and feel so alone at times. For instance, my husband and kids come home from stores with loads of plastic bags and throw them in the trash (when we keep around 20 reusable cloth bags in our car). I usually dig them out and take them back to the recycle bin at the grocery store or Wal-mart when I find them. I’ve just got to remember that I can only do what I can do; everyone else has to do it for themselves – even family.

Great post. You’re right, waste is a luxury.

Hello,
I have left this comment at different sites and am yet to have a response so I am hoping to hear from you. First off the discovery of this “Plastic Island” as some call it, as horrific and shocking as it surly is, well, doesn’t it just join the club of ever growing problems the earth is forced to deal with? Let’s see, were melting the poles, frying the air, running the animal life to extension, fishing the oceans dry and growing the deserts, let’s just stop there for time’s sake. Now, the different elected politicals (I’m in the US) can’t stand to be in the same room long enough to agree on who’s willing to set next to who, much less address any of the above without nit picking it to the level of uselessness. So just exactly what options does that leave us in REALITY. Yes, I’ve stopped using plastic bags but not plastic house siding, car parts, lawn furniture; let’s just do that, “stopping again for time sake” thing. Now all optimistic types say, “We shall rally together and save the earth as evidenced by”. Yes, just what historical proof is there to use as evidence of a time the earth rallied as one to save the earth. Hitler? Maybe. But the problem I have with using Hitler is that he was unabashedly announcing that world domination was his aim. Now, some sites I’ve visited call the plastic swirl just more hype, they don’t even think it exists, so how can we really expect these and other types with other agendas to be on board to rally? Now that I’ve told you what’s swirling around in my mind let me get to my initial question. There was a SiFi movie out just a couple of months ago with Keanu Reeves. I’m sure you know the premise, If you continue earth dies and you die. However, if you die the earth lives. Now bible people come to your door and show a scriptures that say something quite similar. It’s in the last book of the bible and says, God will bring to ruin those ruining the earth. That of course carries the same connotation, the earth being saved “from” people. What do you think about that? It actually sounds more realistic to me then any other option I have seen. And one final thought. I did read one woman’s comment that really drove it home for me. She said, “If the plastic swirl was a swirl of Cod they’d figure out how to fish it dry in no time, so let them do the same with the plastic.” Well, you could feed a Texas size swirl of Cod fish to the starving in Africa (if you could get it past the Black Market of course) but where are you going to put the plastic swirl the size of Texas if you do fish it out? There are sites discussing that too. Burry it in the Arctic, shoot it into outer space, let’s just do that, “stopping again for time sake” thing one final time.

Yes, I would appreciate an answer

What a great post! Can you imagine if all 23 year olds could make this lifestyle shift toward less plastic and less consumption? What a difference we could make. I think that everyone should experience something like what Laura did in Mexico, gain a little perspective.

“Buying a soda and only drinking half and then throwing the rest away is a luxury. I watched children buy a bottle of soda and share that one bottle with all their friends because it was a special treat.”

I teared up a little when I read these sentences. This excerpt speaks not only to waste but also to poverty and to the “luxury of waste” we experience in the U.S. What a great article! I’m always encouraged by Fake Plastic Fish to stand out in the crowd and wave my To-Go Ware proudly!