Waste
After the party at my partner's father's home, I stayed to help him and his wife clean up. Part of cleaning up entailed separating waste. He asked me if recycling really made a difference. I think that many fellow practitioners of zero-waste, voluntary simplicity, slow living and so on are asked this question. I get it fairly often. Usually I and my fellow practitioners say that reducing consumption and relating with objects differently (taking care of them, making things last) makes a difference. Here in Denmark, only around 13% of plastic is recycled. While my partner's father and his wife recycle, what I admire about their practice the most is how they relate with objects. They keep objects for a very long time. They don't consume fast fashion, fast furniture, fast anything. They share. He wears a uniform that he has worn since his youth. When we were cleaning up, we were talking about how things were in their youth. They remember the time when vegetables were sold without packaging.
After helping, I came home to take down our own decorations. I took down and carefully folded paper decorations to use them again. I put away the flags and wooded flag carrier. Moved the garlands to the kids' bedroom, folded the ribbons. Washed the jars that I used for flowers. I saved everything that could be reused and recycled the wastes. It was interesting to observe that the kids liked lollipops (they were leftovers from another party) placed in an upcycled glass jar decorated with a ribbon the most.
I recycle not because I believe that it's the best way to care about the Earth, that it is the most effective way to address ecological degradation. It is not. I recycle because it encourages me to spend time with the waste we produce. My partner's father noted that it is not his fault that vegetables and fruits are packaged in plastic. I agree. But oftentimes there is a choice. It might be less convenient to pick potatoes oneself (providing there is this option to begin with, of course) rather than to just take a plastic bag with potatoes. When I recycle, I ask myself how we could reduce our waste, what we could buy instead. I see what can be upcycled, what can be used as packaging, or reused. For example, I will reuse small pieces of ribbon for garlands and gift wrapping.
It feels like waste is often seen as something dirty and unpleasant. But I treasure the time that I spend with waste. Every day, I spend a couple of minutes on recycling. It's a meditative activity and I would not have preferred to do something else instead. It's part of my life, my research, my analysis of my consumption pattern.
