Wow. I just noticed a huge surge in followers. =)
I bought a bottle of hot sauce a few days into this experiment - I was going to account for it as trash when I had finished the bottle. But, I want to talk about this now. In hindsight, I cannot believe I caved to buy the sauce, or I mean, the bottle that contained the sauce. I regret having bought the bottle of hot sauce. I am going to try to ask why I bought the sauce - what was I thinking?!
We all come from somewhere, our home, and at some level have been raised to be culturally adapted to our homes, our communities and our heritage. Unfortunately, in the era of upward (and outward) mobility, i.e. leaving our homes for meccas of "culture" and consumerism, we are leaving where we are from, probably never to go back. Now, moving from anywhere to anywhere else is something in itself, but moving from say, India to the US is a much bigger move than from Flint to Boston. I truly would love to be surrounded by people that speak the same language I do, and cook and eat the same food I've been adapted to. But that is not the case - I am here, and India is way over there, and there are not that many Gujaratis or Indians here that do or can cook. So, I must continue to remind myself of where I'm from, and I want to. I miss hot, hot, hot food. I bought the hot sauce that day wanting to make hot Mexican food (and the hot sauce was totally not hot, so that sucks), so that my taste buds would feel like they are in a place where hot food is appreciated.
Thesis for *this* post - moving away from home, especially to a very culturally different place, will generate trash because of the longing for home.
Now, I haven't been to the Indian store at all in the past six weeks, and so I have avoided a lot of trash. But I did buy a bottle of not-hot hot sauce...
Probably true, but this specific reason most likely accounts for only a negligible amount in the mountains of trash we generate - I think you're just putting a sentimental spin on your impulse buy. My thesis: trash, it just happens. I've been trying and mostly succeeding to avoid paper towels or napkins, but reflexively I've used 3 towels and 1 napkin since Thursday. It's so amazing how we're surrounded by trash at every turn and how difficult it is to avoid...we've definitely done it to ourselves.
ReplyDeleteYou are right, Jennifer. My specific intention was to comment on things like packaging, which comes with being away from home. I guess I'm trying to differentiate between the different "kinds" of trash. My specific thesis was for *this* particular post.
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