Several weeks ago while out running in my woods I saw someone’s idea of being creative, was to hang their used beer can on the local sign for the marking of the trekking route. This then had me reflecting what it is that brings us to think we can just "dump" what we do not need where we please. I think when we are honest with ourselves there have been times we have all done it (from small to larger items) - the question is why? Was it a youth thing, a lazy action or just not caring or thinking? Did we feel if we were in another country it was then not our problem or in another section of our town then not our business? Does your rubbish reflect who you are when you leave it behind?
I
have a habit of picking up the rubbish when I run around my small patch of
forest and often can be seen with bottles, bags of dog poo or an assortment of
plastic in my hands as I return home. I worry about the animals getting hurt or
trying to eat the items and being in agony as the plastic kills them from the
inside out. Not to mention if a walker or runner stands on a piece of broken
glass and receives a wound that hampers their further progress.
Honestly
feel it is an issue of teaching the human being why when they make a mess, they
need to be responsible for also clearing and taking away their rubbish, to the
appropriate area. What we do not deal with when we make it will bite us in the
backside later when we least expect it! That goes for physical rubbish as well
as that which we act out in our actions, we place on paper in written form or
that which comes out of our mouths.
If
you are not able to deal with your waste in the correct manner then what do you
expect when others treat you as a throw away commodity of no value! All items
within life have a by-product that we later do not need. Be it the packaging
from a item just brought or a value passed on which is disregarded for a new
movement of thought. If I have not taken the time to look at how to handle the
casing or covering, its poison contained within releases itself and simmers in
its place of rest, creating an unbalance in that which I have taken on. The
wastage I have disregarded will continuously drain me, when I use the item that
was enclosed within.
That
is why the fish of today, which we place on our plate, bites us back in our
body’s cells by giving us our own plastic waste treatment. Or the water pouring
out of our taps fills our body system with the residue of medicines used by the
millions but creates for us as individuals our own new personal medical waste issues.
Or the pesticides we have sprayed for years on our crops has changed their
cellular composition and made them today unproductive, wasting our natural food
chain. Or the bees are finding our handling of the world they live in so
wastefully destructive they are literally leaving us. Or our pushing of one
nations ideas upon another causes the wastage of valuable heritage, as we cause
destruction with weapons of war that create the worst possible waste known to
made kind - that of life and all it stands for.
Maybe
if you throw away a scrap of paper, on the footpath, from an energy bar you are
consuming, it seems to you of no consequence to your next moment of living
life. Yet start to put together one persons carelessness with ten, then a
thousand then ten thousand and it takes on another dimension.
We
can create from our waste such wonderful new items to utilize for example in
the form of jewellery, furniture, housing, electricity or the new constructions
of fibres and materials for all manner of items. It is never to late to rethink
your stand to wastage and how we utilize the hidden potential within its
elements of "been used, no good, throw away" label.
Next
time you are about to chuck the casing of something used down or out think upon
the cycle of the seasons and how today’s dead crap becomes the essence of
nourishment for the growth of tomorrows needed product. Waste holds within its
form the casing for a new item of usage. Don´t waste the chance to use it.
My
forefathers would say to the theme of making a difference to how we view
changing our attitude to waste: "Kaua e whakaarohia te mahinga engari te
otinga"(Maori proverb) - "Think not on the
labour, rather reflect on the completion." It is worth the effort for all
and in generations to come when we take effective pro action now.
Your
Korus