The game is afoot

I am constantly mystified by trash. Not by why it exists, but why it can be found in all sorts of places other than where it has historically been placed - the dump. I have never been able to fully understand why we continue to place whatever we deem we no longer need almost immediately on the street, ground, or in our water systems. No matter how much we place in our dumps there is always an infinite amount that ends up everywhere else.

It is easy to see the effects of this phenomenon all over Dhaka. The same can be said for every roadside, town, and village I have passed through or visited here. Trash is everywhere. But why? This isn't just in Bangladesh either. I have seen trash everywhere I have visited on this planet. We are a littering species. We have always been and always will be littering fanatics.

Over the years I have talked with many people about a disconnect some of us have with our planet. Chicken comes from the grocery store, pencils from an office supply store, and gas from a pump. End results are how most of us see the many steps and cycles both natural and man-made products go through to reach our hands. We are thus removed (disconnected) from seeing how much actual time and resources go into to keeping us alive, healthy, and happy. It would be quite difficult for us to see all of these steps. Impossible really.

A clue now arises. Perhaps we litter because we are so far removed from everything. And so in turn don't see a connection between ourselves and our planet. If we did we might not treat every possible space as a trash bin. There are some that can argue this last point quite eloquently. But that lets us off the hook to quickly. There over 6 billion people on this planet and not all of us live with any sort of aforementioned disconnect. Yet littering still occurs.

We have always created waste. It is simply a part of living. Some of it can be broken down naturally and some not. Both are typically stockpiled in large depositories near and sometimes far from our sight. So enters the cycle of producing, consuming, and wasting (ad infinitum). Still, the answer of "why" we litter is not answered. Perhaps there is no why. Perhaps we simply just do.

This does not take away the importance of cleaning up our beaches, oceans, mountains, towns or cities. Nor does it release us of the responsibility to lessen future generations dealing with the environmental and social consequences of our present consuming and wasting— the ripples of our choices and behaviors move far beyond our sight.

Still, look around and you will find more and more of what we waste just sitting there. Perhaps we are simply not capable of seeing littering as a problem. Or, we are unable to truly do anything about it. Or any other complex combination you can think of.

Go back far enough in time and you will find the trash of those that were here before us. Evidence then falls to a hardwired pattern. Yet, even that reasoning let’s us go all too easily.

The mystery continues.