And the Fish Said...

While being in Israel we continually discussed the concept of waste. It was explained to us that in Nature there is no such thing as waste. When something in nature changes its form, for instance dies, it becomes something else that is useful, like nutrients for the soil. Therefore waste is a human construct.

     While I was in school the topic of environmental ethics was consistently raised, however the question of waste had never really occurred to me. While I do my best to try and do things like recycle, it is so easy to get rid of our trash that on a daily basis I never think about where it is going. When I don’t want something anymore I simply “throw it away”. But what does that mean? In reality it means that I know longer have to deal with it. Out of site, out of mind. However it does go somewhere.

     In Nepal it seems to go on the ground so that it is visible for everyone. It is impossible to not think about trash on a daily basis because it is right in front you. It really has caused me to be conscious of what I’m using and throwing away. When I move to my village it will become my responsibility to dispose of my waste. So every time I do something that results in making trash I remind myself that soon it will be my responsibility, therefore making the saying “out of site of mind” void, because in order to put the trash “out of site” it will be up to me to figure out how to do it.  The result being that trash will always be on my mind.

     What has become particularly apparent is how much water we waste.  We were asked to define what water means to us and I found it very difficult because I’ve never thought about it. We were asked to read an article on the topic which included a joke which I felt explained the situation perfectly.

“So there is a fish swimming down a river who comes across a frog sitting on the river bank. The frog asks the fish ‘Hey fish, how’s the water?’ and the fish says ‘what the hell is water?’”

What the joke is making lite of is the fact that water is the elusive present moment. It encompasses our current state of being, which we rarely acknowledge, but is always all around us. While we need fresh water for our everyday lives we take advantage of this resource by using it for things we don’t need. For example our toilets. Since I have arrived the toilet for my floor has broken. The flusher does not work, so therefor after we use the bathroom we need to fill up a very large bucket and pour into the toilet bowl, which then forces the waste to go down. The bucket I have to fill is extremely large and takes approximately 3 minutes to fill. So while I am standing in the bathroom filling up this bucked it is forcing me to ask the question, why are we using 10 gallons of drinking water to flush our shit down the toilet? While in Israel we discussed several ways in which we can recycle our water. For example if there was a system that

recycled our shower water into the toilet so that instead of using clean drinking water for our waste we would reuse our house hold supply of water.

     Being here, with these people, in this environment is allowing me to be open to innovative ideas that inspire different ways of living in the first world. My hope is that during this time I can integrate some simple ideas into my everyday life, which I will be able to continue when I return home.

To be continued…