The Official Vivapura Blog

I once had a next door neighbor who lived by himself, ate fairly healthy, with the possible exception of a diet pepsi addiction. How do I know this? Because every monday and thursday, when we put the trash on the curb, I would notice that he would manage to smush all of his garbage into the 12-pack pepsi carton. Except for an occasional plastic bag, that was all he usually left on garbage day. I often wondered how he managed to produce so little waste.

Not long after, my family transitioned to a mostly raw food diet. We bought lots of fresh produce and began composting the waste. And most importantly, we "opted-out" of the modern consumer-based materialism that seems to be driving our society (not having a TV helps).

The result: very little trash. We even reduced out trash pickup to once a week instead of twice a week.

I have traveled to Mexico, China and India, and I couldn't help but notice the enormous amounts of roadside litter. In certain parts of the world, it is beyond crisis. I often asked myself, what is the enabling factor? Obviously there is a lack of infrastructure. But I recall a period in the 70's where we in the US we also prone to littering. It seems that has changed.

Here's my theory.

In extremely poor communities within "developing" nations, there isn't much "purchasing of commercial stuff" going on. People farm, raise domesticated animals for milk and cheese, and produce food. Others make crafts, some catch fish, and everyone mostly sells or exchanges at the market. Purchases are made and people carry their wares in baskets. In this scenario, all "waste" is natural compost. There is not much thought process in chucking a banana peel or apple core into the bushes. The use of a "trash can" is unnecessary. This behavior is culturally ingrained.

Then, over the course of the last 60 years or so, communities in the world are introduced to processed food, manufactured goods, and the resulting "packaging", much of it plastic. The concept of trash that doesn't compost is at some point new, and the community consciousness hasn't yet adapted to this phenomenon.

At some point, the children who are brought up under the “just-chuck-you-plastic-bottle-on-the-roadside” grow up and question the feasibility of this behavior. Eventually, they make their way into politics and help transform their communities’ infrastructure. Campaigns of “no-littering” bring attention and awareness to the issue.

Here’s the good news

With the growing trend towards consciousness and caring about the planet, consumers and produces in the “developed” countries are beginning to choose bio-degradable packaging. Perhaps we can alleviate this issue, instead of trying to “attack the problem”, by simply leaping past it and upgrading our lifestyle consciously.