Trash

Last night, L and I picked up some of the BEST Chinese food last night. It's called Heaven Dragon, and supposedly it is where George W. Bush eats when he is in Colorado. Anyway, my purpose in telling you this is because it spawned another deep thought . . .

First of all, we had to unpack this giant brown bag of food that was all in it's own container . . . 2 soups in styrofoam containers with plastic lids, a "tub" of fried rice in the typical, double stacked, laminated paper Chinese take-out rice container with the little metal handle. Then, the two entrees in their plastic containers and lids. I think we had some eggrolls and crab wontons (with real crab!) in a paper bag.

So, I am sitting there, mouth watering, as we dole this delicious dinner onto our plates, looking at the trash that was created just so we could bring this dinner home. Then, it made me think of all of the trash that we, just our family, creates in a week. Then, I thought of how many people there are in the United States that create trash EVERY day. Think of all the packaging that we have, whether it is for food or toys or whatever that just gets thrown away. Where does it all go?

Then, my mind went really deep into thinking about all of the trash that has been created in the history of man . . . billions and billions (say like Dr. Evil) of people that are living and have lived create waste. Now, I realize that most of this trash problem has been exacerbated (what does that mean? Watch Shaun of the Dead!) in the last century or two since the industrial revolution and mass production.

Of course, all of this rambling thought (that happens within about 4 seconds) begs the question . . . "How long can we keep this up until we reach a point of undeniable damage to life, ecosystems, health, etc.?"

I admit that I have definately been a typical U.S. consumer who has contributed an un-godly amount of non-biodegradeable and hazardous trash to this planet we call home. In fact, sometimes I will even wonder where all of my trash is in the world right now. I don't know if this is because I am getting older and wiser or just more aware of it, but I would like to certainly do my part to reduce my (and my family's) impact on our finite resources and capacity to deal with trash.

So, to conclude this expansive post . . .

Deep Thought - Have you ever thought of all of the trash created in a day by yourself? By your neighborhood? By your city, state, county, etc.? What about the 6 billion people in the world . . . in one single day???

New Years Resolution Addition - I would like to find out how I can do a better job of recycling and reducing our family's trash. Any suggestions?