A brief addendum on the subject of trash

I was packing this afternoon and generally tidying up my room here. I had a little plastic bag of the trash I've accumlated which I'll add to the larger plastic bag in the office which eventually Ciza will set on fire. As I was clearing the table of some things I'd used up I became transfixed by my empty sunscreen bottle.

It's one of those completely sealed, post CFC regulation aerosol kind of sprays. Therefore the bottle can't be opened and used again. The bottle is made of metal, which means it can't be set on fire. What is going to become of it? There's no place here for it to go. Then I reminded myself that there's no place for it to go in America either, it's just that where it hangs out while it's going no place is in some landfill where I can't see it and therefore no longer think of it.

Last night as we were cobbling together a dinner for ourselves from the leftovers of our traveling food, I brought out 3 ziplock bags of trail mix bars I'd been advised to bring to Burundi for myself in case I had a craving for something sweet or wanted the emotional comfort of some familar kind of food. Turned out I didn't need either so I'd brought them along on our trip intending to share them around as part of our traveling food. As they were passed around and opened (and in most cases, enjoyed) I became horrorstruck by the amount of trash that was being created by the growing pile of wrappers from each individually wrapped bar. I looked at the other food we'd brought. Peanuts we'd been scooping into bowls out of a single large plastic bag. Itambura- these delicious doughnut tasting balls of fried dough which also came in a clump out of a single plastic bag. Loaf of bread, single plastic bag. Glass jar of jam. Many bottles of Fanta. Three plastic bags in their first stage of life with other stages, previously discussed, ahead of them. Glass jar/bottles all destined to be reused. 18 single use wrappers.

I must leave Burundi before I destroy it with trash. I'm afraid I may pass out when I get home and am reminded of how much we throw away, that really isn't going anywhere at all.