A load of garbage

Right now I have something on my mind. It's a load of garbage.

Or, more precisely, when I allow it, I can fill my mind with images of piles, heaps, or mounds and stench of garbage, dumped along a village or town roadside in western China, with rats and other animals crawling around amongst the steamy heaps. Or, if I allow my thoughts to wander more, I can picture the kind, tiny old lady who patrolled the campus dumpster, waiting for something that might be worth some money, and then she would climb into the disgusting dumpster and remove whatever she found.

Garbage thrown over a hill in Chengxian, Gansu, China

Garbage is not pretty; and in many places in the world, it is a real problem. The difference between the towns where we have lived and seen garbage is that where many people in the west live, we cannot see the garbage problem. But that does not mean it does not exist. I believe "out of sight, out of mind" is unfortunately true.

In poor areas of the world, garbage is indeed a problem and recycling facilities most certainly do not exist. Therefore, the garbage may pile up in mountains of garbage that can spread pollutants and disease. It felt terrible for us to throw away recyclables in China; although we learned that certain products (cardboard, plastic bottles) were greatly appreciated by the older, poor population who collected them for some money. We began saving our bottles in separate containers and placing them outside the dumpster, and we learned that this was appreciated. But no separate recycling bins or collection facilities existed; those who wanted to make money simply had to find it by themselves by digging through the stinking garbage.

Now, it is easy for people in the west to complain about poorer areas of China or other countries, and think "thank goodness we do not have the same problems." While it is true that the United States or Sweden do not have heaps of smoldering, stinking garbage on poorer campuses or along streets or on river banks, "The U.S. is the #1 trash-producing country in the world at 1,609 pounds per person per year. This means that 5% of the world's people generate 40% of the world's waste." (Recycling Facts article). I am sure other western countries are not far behind.

The problem with this statistic, and what bothers me the most, is that we can do more. We have access not only to garbage removal, but also to recycling facilities. Granted, these can often be improved, but we have them. Even, as we learned today, my tiny hometown of Fertile, MN, has a recycling bin in town where people can bring all of their recycling and it will be taken care of. My stepfather, Bruce, even called the facilities today and learned how it works after a discussion we had (that really impressed me. :) I now know that in Fertile, Duluth, and the Cities, recycling can be all put into the same container and it is separated in the plant. This is unbelievably convenient. Where we live in Uppsala, in our condo building, Tomas and I recycle in different containers in our kitchen, and when one is full we bring it out to the recycling room in the area.

Why is this important? It is important to care for our environment; it is important to recycle also because it gives us a sense of shared responsibility and generally increasing of awareness toward environmental and global issues. Some items are more efficient to recycle than others; according to this article on recycling, for an aluminum can, "there is no limit to the amount of times [it] can be recycled." Whereas on the contrary, if an aluminum can is just thrown away, "An aluminum can...will still be a can 500 years from now!" Plastic is of course bad for the environment and in general needs to be consumed much less, but when we do buy plastic, we can recycle it. According to the same article, for each week's Sunday papers in the US, 500,000 trees are cut down. The article here has a lot of great, short facts that are important to read.

For me as a Christian, and a concerned global citizen, I feel especially inclined to recycle. Some Christian groups share these feelings. I found an interesting article in USA Today about a group of Christians who feel especially called to recycle. In Article in USA Today, Melanie Griffin, director of the Sierra Club, says that "More and more evangelicals are coming to believe creation care is an integral part of their calling as Christians. It is becoming part of their faith." Before Tomas and I were sent to China by Svenska kyrkan, the Church of Sweden, we learned that Svenska kyrkan is quite active in its promotion of the environment and global responsibility (including promoting Fair Trade). This impressed us and I felt this philosophy was truly in line with my own beliefs.

To me (and I know that people may accuse me of being extreme at times), it is an insult to the people in the world who lack access to garbage disposal and recycling facilities (not to mention water treatment plants! another issue altogether) that we do not take full advantage of our own local environments, and do the best that we can. I cannot imagine throwing a plastic bottle into a garbage can; this would disrespect my own local area, but also the kind old ladies who gratefully accepted them from our hands in China, instead of having to crawl through the garbage to look for them themselves, in order to collect whatever they could for bringing them in. Deforestation is a huge problem in many parts of the world; although this is not true in Sweden, I cannot imagine throwing newspapers or paper into the garbage. These can be recycled; to not recycle them, in my mind, disrespects the farmers and people around the world suffering from the effects of deforestation, drought, and floods.

If we are not doing our best; if we are not doing our part, who are we to criticize other people, in other countries? How can we improve our own environments if we do not recycle? And how can we raise our own children without informing them of both the great beauty--and simultaneous frailty--of our earth?

The next generation, and those to come, will certainly not only live in the earth that is left after us; they will also learn from our example. What example are we providing them?

You care for the land and water it; you enrich it abundantly. The streams of God are filled with water to provide the people with grain, for so you have ordained it. You drench its furrows and level its ridges; you soften it with showers and bless its crops. You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance. The grasslands of the desert overflow; the hills are clothed with gladness. The meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are mantled with grain; they shout for joy and sing.
(Psalm 65:9-13) 

(More relevant verses, if you are interested, can be found here: Collected Verses)