Taking out the Trash

While in my old apartment, I realized that I didn't know how to take out the trash.

I know that this statement seems bizarre to the entire Western world because we have been trained since childhood in how to throw things away. To not litter. To take our full, tied-up trashbags from our trashcans and place them into trash receptacles. Trashbins. Dumpsters. We know how to throw away our trash.

But a day came about two weeks ago when I had filled up a trashbag, tied it up, placed it by my door to carry outside...and then I realized something. There was no dumpster on my street. Just trash piles.

34 years of training in "don't litter" couldn't easily accept that I was to put my trashbag on the side of the road in the pile of trash that was across from my building. I hoped for a dumpster. I searched for a dumpster. I longed for a dumpster and trashmen in a trashtruck who would allow me to rid of my trash in a non-littering way.

No such luck.

Trash goes in the pile nearest your house. I shamefully placed my bag in the pile and walked away as quickly as I could, knowing that no one here thought anything of it at all...but I couldn't stand it. I felt like I'd littered. I felt like I'd taken a huge jump towards personally ruining the planet. I felt like I was not being a good steward of the Earth that God had given. I felt like the Suiters were going to reject me forever because I hadn't found a more Earth-friendly way to dispose of my trash and had just succumbed to the easiest way possible to rid myself of my trash (even though I was doing so in the culturally appropriate way, which I know would make the Suiters happy).

So at my new apartment, I hoped again for a dumpster. I asked Roommate where I put the trash. She said that there is a place just around the corner of our building to put the trash. I looked and saw no dumpster. Nor a trash pile.

There was, however, a trash pile down the street where some construction was being done. Feeling very sneaky, and wondering if it is acceptable to put your trash in someone else's pile, I put my bag there. And walked away as quickly as I could.

I later told Roommate what I'd done and her eyes got big. Apparently, you don't put your trash in someone else's pile. You put it in your own. She showed me where our pile is, and I'll be sure to put our trash there from now on. And apparently trashmen DO come and pick up the trash.

I wonder how long it will take for me to get used to just putting my trash in a pile on the side of the road? I promise not to get culturally acclimated enough to be okay with actual littering. Although I will admit to picking the olives out of my cheese bread I bought the other day and just throwing them on the side of the road. I figured that throwing olives on the ground wasn't littering or ruining the planet...but feeding the feral cats that roam around. And maybe feeding feral cats balances out the trash piles.