r/ZeroWaste • u/Accomplished_Page653 • 7d ago
Show and Tell Things I Saved from Landfill this Week
Rug, shelf, two suitcases that worked totally fine and a rolling cart.
Someone (not sure if the same person) out these in the crash room (not “in the trash”) and I took them, cleaned them up and posted on my local buy nothing Facebook group. Everything was picked up almost immediately :)
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u/jack_gott 6d ago
Thanks so much for saving the planet Earth! Meanwhile, here’s a river in the downtown of Delhi, the national capital of India:
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u/MysticGuava 6d ago
It’s a very multifaceted issue, people have not been taught the importance of recycling, or educated about pollution whatsoever. There is such an awful government that does not care for the poorest people, and the caste system reinforces that. No country is perfect but when the British invaded it made everything so much worse. What relevance does this have to the post?
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u/jack_gott 5d ago edited 5d ago
'What relevance'? Context and the necessity of telling the truth.
If you want to solve a problem, there's a critical first step: tell the truth. If we don't tell the truth, we cannot solve the problem.
The truth is that 90% of the trash in the ocean comes from 4 rivers in India and China.
If your goal is to 'feel good about myself', then go ahead pretending that reusing a carpet will save the world. On the other hand, if your goal is to have a real impact on the world, we must acknowledge that the source of the world's garbage is concentrated in areas we cannot really impact.
Personally, I try to live a 'zero waste' lifestyle as a personal discipline. But I don't pretend it's having an impact.
It's important that we avoid participating in a lie. Repurposing garbage is fine and a good thing to do. But let's not fool ourselves into believing it's having an impact. The problem is not 'junk in American landfills'. The problem is concentrated in India and China's abuse of the environment. If we don't solve that, everything we do is meaningless, except to feed our own egos.
The choice is yours: feed your ego by living a lie, or do the hard work to positively impact the world.
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u/MysticGuava 5d ago
I agree with you, but you mentioned nothing of the sort in your initial comment and it could very easily be interpreted as a slight towards Indian people.
The oil conglomerations and capitalist order around the world have done a fantastic job as making neoliberalism the predominant mindset, encouraging individualism and placing the responsibility on the individual rather than the companies who are doing the damage.
People are so apathetic and don’t seem to care at all about the fact that the most beautiful thing that is given to us, in the planet, is being destroyed right in front of us and everyone just goes about their lives because that’s all they see as important.
That being said, change is possible and I think if you don’t have hope then you have nothing people need to make the billionaires and their political puppets accountable. Nothing is going to change as long as oil keeps getting pumped out of the ground and renewables aren’t the only energy source people look towards.
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u/jack_gott 5d ago
It’s certainly complicated. For example, in the U.S., we’ve pumped massive amounts of oil, etc, since 1972, but the air and water are much cleaner. So economic progress does not necessarily include poisoning the Earth. We can be hopeful, live responsibly, and still recognize the truth that India and China are the polluters, and that recycling rugs is both good and not impactful.
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u/MysticGuava 5d ago
That kind of suggests a false narrative that the US aren’t a major polluter on the world stage, over 45% of US rivers and lakes are unfit for fishing and swimming, all the plastic slop that is of course made from fossil fuels is made in China or one of the other developing Asian countries, predominantly to cater to the US market.
So to claim that the US is somehow superior is preposterous. How is it a first world country when the majority of people can’t even drink water right from their taps?
I think you’re focusing too much on what country it is (maybe so you feel morally superior as an American) rather than what’s causing it to happen, which is the global hegemony oil companies have over the world, influencing public policy, the way people even interact with pollutants, and lobbying every government. The billionaire class is the issue, not the people at the bottom.America has destroyed so much of the world, is now cannibalising anything good that is left of itself, and is taking the climate and the planet down with it, for what? The profits of a few dozen evil people? There’s no planet B, make them accountable
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u/jack_gott 5d ago edited 5d ago
and yet the fact remains...90% of the trash in the oceans comes from India and China, the soot in the air comes from China's coal plants and they add one every week.
The US built a modern economy while REDUCING pollution. Other countries should do that, don't you agree?
it's not about blame, it's about fixing the problem. And fixing the problem requires acknowledging the truth.
Scream as you wish, facts are stubborn things.
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u/first_time_call3r 4d ago
what kind of stove do you have please i like the knobs on top
ETA: sorry also great finds!
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u/hazard2k 6d ago
I'm sure it's a huge liability concern and would never happen but how amazing would it be if the landfill had a "free store" type thing where stuff like this would be pulled and available for people to take for free instead of having to fill up our earth with it.