Garbage

The topic of garbage occurred to me today when I walked past a garbage truck collecting in my neighborhood. Oddly, Marcel Proust’s book ‘Remembrance of Things Past’ came to mind because, in the beginning of his book, the aroma of madelleine cookies immediately and strongly brought his thoughts back to his youth.

For me, the shocking realization was that garbage today smells exactly how I remember garbage smelling in my youth.

How can that be? Garbage is drastically different today that it was decades ago.

The ratio of raw to processed foods has changed drastically over the decades. The actual kinds of foods have changed drastically, too. Arugula, sushi, portobello mushrooms, tofu, and salsa now; meat and potatoes and ketchup then. How can the garbage smell the same?

Packaging has changed drastically. Meat was wrapped in butcher paper. Fruits and vegetables were not wrapped – just bagged in brown paper bags. There were far fewer prepared meals. Now we see food in plastic, on microwaveable trays, and sold into reusable bags that we must remember to bring.

Cooking has changed drastically. All we had was stovetops and ovens. And pressure cookers and outdoor charcoal grills. We still have all those cooking methods but they are used less as we have migrated to microwaves and Instant Pots ?.

Getting rid of trash has changed drastically. We have garbage disposals. We recycle everything that should be recycled – maybe because we want to, maybe because it is the law. More folks compost kitchen scraps with their lawn and leaf litter.

So, since everything has changed – contents, packaging, cooking and disposal – how come garbage trucks smell the same now as they did decades ago?

Still Yuck. Not better at all.