I was recently interviewed by a woman from the Globe and Mail (will post the article on Twitter and FB later this week).  She asked me one particular question that has stuck with me.  That was, “How do you feel when you do acquire plastic?”

My answer was “desperation”, because knowing what I do, ‘away’ has been forever taken away.  Before, the alleyway was the place the magic dude came to cart my plastic crap to some magical place and make it also disappear from my mind.  Fascinating to think that all it takes is that simple ‘away’ concept to justify so much consumption and waste.

We had ordered some building materials for our half-house some time ago.  Horror descended over me as, what looked like the possible delivery, ascended the driveway.  Everything was stretch wrapped like a million times to the point you could barely see the truck.  We had never encountered this before, so how was I to know, but now I had to my name an associated 40 lbs of stretch wrap…for what…oh a mere thousand years!!  I wanted to close my eyes and make the whole moving, shimmering, mound disappear.  Alas, it did not, and at the top of the hill the burly driver had no idea why I just stood there speechless. 

I repeat: what the heck do you do when there is no away?  Nino eventually put the wrap somewhere and I have not seen it since.  Best case its life was extended slightly in some other application, but the material is not gone, from this planet, nor my mind.  Desperation, check.

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*The next time we ordered wood we made sure to specify no wrap.  It worked and seemed so simple with the benefit of learned anticipation.