By Kate Marie Phillips
“Open Your Eyes” is a bimonthly column seeking to expand our realm of awareness beyond the everyday tunnel-vision perspective—to encourage readers to more consistently notice the often-overlooked social and environmental impacts we have upon the world and find ways of reforming our day-to-day lives to evolve into more conscientious human beings.
Your eyes are open, darting left to right across the screen, consciously digesting my thoughts through hundreds of subconscious movements. You are aware at this moment. This human quality—the ability to perceive, be conscious, and have knowledge—is not found equally in everyone at any instant. Admitting that 7 billion of us homo sapiens roam the earth, every moment impacting it via 7 billion little actions and decisions, it is certainly understandable that the effects are not all made purposefully. Stepping into a somewhat typical, contemporary First World perspective, we may find ourselves overlooking these little things. Thus, we shall focus upon an ever-notorious example: garbage.
All humans generate it—some in greater amounts than others. Toss that messed-up homework assignment here, a half a sandwich there. Multiply these actions by the population of merely the United States and you’ll find a colossal heap of rubbish stinking up your backyard. But, hold the phone—in reality, most of us don’t have a dump in our neighborhoods. So, where does it all go?
While some does wind up in local landfills, the United States and other First World countries actually ship an estimated 3 million tons of trash and untreated toxic waste to Second and Third World countries. Topping the list is China, a country that many First World governments pay to accept noxious junk to add to their own excessive output of waste in relation to recycled materials. Imagine the toll cast upon these people competing daily against an unstable environment, already considerably degraded by factors such as soil problems exacerbated by inefficient farming methods, deforestation, and pollution of the air and water.
Professor Jared Diamond, author of award-winning books Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse, addresses this “direct transfer of pollution from the First World to China” specifically in Collapse saying, “In addition … because China recycles very little trash, huge quantities of industrial and domestic trash are dumped into open fields, polluting soil and taking over or damaging cropland. More than two-thirds of China’s cities are now surrounded by trash whose composition has changed dramatically from vegetable leftovers, dust, and coal residues to plastics, glass, [and] metal … a world buried in garbage.”
How many times a day do you, upon gulping the last refreshing drops of a bottled beverage, toss the empty bottle into the regular garbage when a recycling can stands nearby? What about those dead batteries and electronics? The junk mail? The cereal box? Does it really take that much effort to be more conscious of where you’re sending your waste? How aware must you be to shift your arm the few inches it takes to drop that bottle into the beaming-blue recycling can? Or to be patient enough to carry it to a classroom or the Hub?
Because we each have our individual interests, experiences and lifestyles that affect our perception of the world, it makes sense that matters like these are easily overlooked. But, does it really matter? Ask yourself, “Would I like a toxic dump in my backyard, sickening me and the generations to come?” This train of thought leads us to the overarching question: does transporting waste truly sever the effects of its pollution from its place of origin or is it just an “out-of-sight, out-of-mind” Bandaid applied to conceal the real issue? Professor Diamond explains succinctly, “Even if China’s people had no connection through trade and travel with people elsewhere, … [it] would guarantee effects on other peoples merely because China is releasing its wastes and gases into the same ocean and atmosphere.” So, again I ask, does it matter? And, your answer should come as quickly as the blink of an eye.
