The path to composting is littered with excuses. First off, it’s yucky. Our hands will get dirty, it will stink, there is a lot of work to it, and we just don’t have the time. Plus, there are easier ways. Just buy dirt. A few bags here and a few bags there…hey, no problem. Composting also means we have to keep our garbage around to make those piles of stuff that only folks that really garden understand. Imagine. Keeping your food scrapes in a bin or something else rather than just throwing them out. Imagine. Taking your leaves and grass clippings to piles to add to that big eyesore of stinky stuff. Much easier to just chuck it in the trash can and have it taken away.
People come and take it away. Like Magic. One minute, here….another minute, whisked away so we don’t have to be bothered. Nice people in coveralls come in trucks that hold lots and lots of trash. Our trash. Our neighbors’ trash. The family down the street that has more kids then sense….their trash, too. Even trash from the old couple who wave every time you pass them. Seems like they are always in their yard, doesn’t it? What’s their deal, anyway? Even they generate trash that is taken away. The nice people in the trucks take everyone’s trash. They are so nice they do it early so the streets are not cluttered too long with those unsightly trash cans. The nice people take the nasty stuff away.
They do in once a week or so. Sometimes more and sometimes less. They pick up your can of garbage and take it away. Not the can. Just the garbage. We need the can. We have more garbage coming their way next week, the week after that, and every single week after that. A can a week. For me and my family, it is actually two large cans plus one of the other color ones for stuff that is recycled. The nice people pick up that stuff on a different day. Regardless of the color of the cans, how many cans, how many times a week…the premise is the same. We put our trash in cans by the street and they take it to places really stinky but out of our sight.
We pay these people with our taxes. That is a good use of our tax money. It is likely the most visible use of our tax money. That and government corruption and bureaucracy on the nightly news. Government stuff does make for good talk at the water cooler. Our trash is no where near as much fun to talk about as government trash is. We still need to talk about it. We have a lot of government. We have even more trash.
How much? According to studies, the average American generates somewhere between 1000 to 2000 pounds of trash a year. To the less mathematically inclined among you, that means about 3 to 5 pounds a day. While the studies vary, I know the exact amount of trash we generate everyday. Way Too Much! Trust me. Skinny or fat, six times your body weight in trash each year is too damn much. If the nice people in overalls and big trucks did not come to take it away, I would be writing this from under a pile of garbage about the size your nearest Wal-Mart. You would be too. So, why compost?
Read the numbers again. We are talking a lot of trash here. Seems everything is bigger in America…even our garbage. We set records. Five percent of the population and we generate 40% of the waste. What a waste. American or not, we generate too much trash. We pay folks to haul our trash away. Trash that could be turned into really good dirt right in our back yard. Then, if we garden at all, we buy dirt, plant a few flowers, call ourselves green, and head out to celebrate over dinner.
Quite frankly, we’re idiots. Idiots with clean hands but idiots nonetheless. Compost because you choose to generate something other than trash as your legacy, can use the exercise, will have dirt that will make you want to garden, and then will have a garden where you can actually feed yourself with what you helped grow with your very own hands. Zen in the garden afterwards, pay off a few of the damn bills, and get a clue.
Now, time for me to step off the soap box and get my hands dirty. I have a heap of compost waiting to be born.
(If you want to jump ahead to the actual doing part, go to Tirecrafting.com and get the book and DVD from Tire Man that shows you how. More to follow.)
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