Rubbish

In cities at home, you hear lots of news stories and public service announcements about reducing waste so as not to add to the landfill. The problem with these and the reason that the landfill continues to grow is that “the landfill” is largely a theoretical concept. Few people ever see this mythical “landfill” with their own eyes, so it is pretty difficult to get worried about something that may or may not actually exist. As far as most people are concerned, you put garbage in a can, take the can to the curb and it disappears by the end of the day. Where has it gone? Who cares? It’s garbage!

Garbage does not disappear here; it continues to pile up until someone eventually sets the pile on fire with little regard for the toxic fumes created by the burning of plastic. Mounds of tattered plastic bags and squashed water bottles develop at various places around the city and even spill out into the road at times. (If it were feasible to fix potholes by filling them with garbage, this would be a different place, let me tell you!)

As if the piles of trash weren’t unsightly enough on their own, these dump sites tend to attract flocks of marabou storks which are quite possibly the UGLIEST creatures on the planet. I imagine that at some point, marabou storks must have lived in some green and natural habitat, but I’ve only ever seen them picking through overflowing dumpsters in urban environments. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if the phrase “you are what you eat” originally referred to marabou storks.

As someone who has gained a slightly different perspective on garbage over the last few months, I would urge you to consider leaving your garbage man a token of appreciation for the valuable and vital work he does. Having garbage that disappears on a weekly basis is cause for great celebration, believe me! Oh yeah, while you’re at it, you should probably reduce waste as well, so as not to add to the landfill. If you’re not careful, the marabou storks might hear that if the garbage picking is good in Africa, North America is a regular carrion-eater’s Valhalla and a marabou migration is about the last thing anyone should want to encourage!