No Trash

It's a conundrum. Even with a garbage disposal we amass enough trash to fill up a small trash bag. Each Wednesday we leave the bag behind our Toyota. On a light week we affix the pink sticker-- one dollar. Sometimes we need a larger bag and use a yellow sticker-- two dollars.

We've never gone a week without accumulating trash. I've noted that fewer of our neighbors leave out any garbage. In my condo building of six units our one dollar bag sat alone.

The building across the way had two bags.

No one in our building is on vacation. As I walked around the complex I began counting bags and noted only one building out of fifteen with more than three units with trash bags.

This phenomenon is on the increase. Do people bring their trash to work? Do they distribute each day's trash in different trash bins across town?

I envision a scene where people tiptoe to large trash bins and surreptitiously deposit their plastic bags.

Is it an affront to purchase the sticker? Every other week when recyclable items are placed outside almost everyone participates.

All I can deduce from this behavior is an aversion to pay. We have so little control of what happens to us in the public domain that I expect that taking trash into your own hands feels like a revolutionary act akin to throwing tea overboard.