Citizens of Out

 Burning hills of trash on the "out" skirts of New Deli

This morning I said, "I'm taking out the trash." The question suddenly occurred to me, "Where is Out?"

When I throw out light bulbs, batteries, plastic bottles, not to mention all the other garbage, is Out a place? Who lives there? What do I owe them for taking my trash? Billions of human beings never ask this question. We just assume there is a place called Out.

Like everything else that matters in life, garbage is a Circle. My trash pours into the landfill, from landfill to fire, from fire to rain, from rain to sea, from sea to soil, from soil to shard and kale and spinach, from green plants to my body. In earth's bio-web, trash doesn't really go anywhere. It returns. We eat and breathe each others garbage.

There is no such thing as Waste. We are all citizens of Out.

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