I had heard and even used the term before, but I had no idea how deeply it was impacting me.
Throughout the stages of emptying our home, it was remarkable how much stuff we had. We carefully marketed the more valuable items on Facebook Marketplace. We held sales to offload things that we knew had value but weren’t worth the time to list individually. We took many truckloads to Goodwill as charitable donations.
And there was a TON of garbage.
What surprised me at the time was how hard it was to sell some high-quality items for reasonable prices. We had a $2600 Tempur-Pedic mattress, frame, and headboard set that we finally sold for $75. Or there was the $2700 Kling solid cherry dresser set – beautifully stained real wood in great condition that – because the handles were an older Chippendale style my wife called old and ugly – were finally given away for only a $50 delivery fee.
I discovered that in general, people who want nice things buy them new, and people who buy used things expect them dirt cheap.
Back to the garbage… Our family’s weekly trash pickup in the US was one 96-gallon (363 liters) bin for all recyclables and another 96-gallon bin for other waste. I thought I was pretty environmentally conscious just to make sure we recycled anything that could be recycled, and I feel like I repair and repurpose far more than average. But, in a normal week, each bin would be around ¾ full. Leading up to leaving, both were consistently over-stuffed for many months. But that wasn’t enough. At one point, we filled a 40-yard (30 cubic meter) dumpster!
Side bar here. I am a fan of pointing out the fulfillment of Malachi 3:10:
Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
Never forget how blessed we truly are!
Fast forward to our arrival in Italy. This is our weekly garbage pickup allotment. That little bin on the right is for all the non-recyclables and non-compostables.
Of course, one of the first things I did when I arrived is sign up for Amazon Italy. Because there are just certain things we need… right? Laundry baskets, contact solution, kitchen thermometer… What about a couple yoga mats – probably even extra thick for these less-than smooth tile floors. Around $23 each for a couple months of use is totally worth it for our health. In the US I wouldn’t have given it a second thought. But wait, how do we dispose of them when we leave??? Even one won’t fit in that waste bin!
And suddenly it struck me just how deeply engrained in me this throw-away culture really is.
How much waste have I personally consumed in my life? How much stuff have I gone through in what Jerry Seinfeld refers to as my “garbage processing center”? How sustainable is my personal, individual footprint of waste? (Enjoy Seinfeld’s funny skit on this serious condition here.)
I also noticed some things in my many truckloads of delivery to Goodwill. I’m doing a good thing here, right? Donating used items to charity where they can be repurposed and put to good use at prices accessible to those who need them. The folks collecting my stuff didn’t seem to appreciate it though. As I peered into the warehouse overly full of stuff and observed the lines of people dropping off more and more stuff, it began to feel less like a charity and more like a free dump. In fact, it became apparent to me that Goodwill is not where I want to bring anything that is actually valuable as I watched my nice office desk get carelessly dropped, the leg broken off, and then carried on into the warehouse like nothing had happened. Has the throw-away culture taken such hold in my heart that I am using Goodwill to justify and mask my truly selfish and wasteful consumerism? I wonder, based on my recent experiences selling used items, what percent of things donated to Goodwill actually make it into someone’s home again?
This is already long, so I will save my commentary on building homes in the US out of essentially sticks and mud – disposable compared to the construction methods I see here – for another day.
For today, let’s just say I am reconsidering my consumption habits, and hope maybe you will too.
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