Rubbish

Americans take waste disposal very seriously.

First you have to wrap your head around the terminology. Rubbish goes in the 'trash can', which subsequently goes to the 'garbage' and if you are really lucky you might have a 'dumpster' for extra capacity. (I think trash and garbage maybe fairly interchangeable terms, still working on deciphering that nuance.)

Fast and ready made food is the norm. Everything comes in a packet or a tray, with layers of plastic and foil. Even disposable cooking containers are included in your 'take home to cook' meal. So you would think a family of seven, with ravenous teenage boys would be well able to keep up. Sadly no.

Each house along our street has a massive bin on wheels (about twice the capacity of our wheely bin in Wellington) and this gets collected twice a week. I feel embarrassed when I put my bin out, only half full once a week.  In Wellington I had to sneak my excess rubbish into the bins of my neighbours, but in Powell I am seriously considering acquiring trash just to put into my bin.

I cant even blame recycling. While there is a center I can take our cardboard and plastic, a couple of blocks away. If I save the planet - I am in danger of being even further away from my goal.

What's wrong with us? At first I thought it was just because we were new, and hadn't yet got to the throw out stage of the consumer cycle, but all that packaging material from the new things we did buy seemed to be endless. Now sadly all gone. Maybe we aren't doing enough home improvements, or lawn maintenance. We are surely shirking our consumer responsibilities. I fear there is only a limited time before we will be shunned.

If an abundant life is a full bin..... we are not yet living it.

Our beautiful big bin.