THROW AWAY

Jono Hey, artist and blogger wrote:

“It’s a phrase I always grew up with: you throw rubbish and trash “away” and take what you don’t need to “the dump” or “the tip.” However, a comment in a nature documentary made me reevaluate:
 
“You can’t throw anything away. There is no ‘away’.”
 
Unless we’re throwing a leaf or some grass cuttings back on the lawn, it matters where what we’ve used ends up. It doesn’t go away—it goes somewhere, and eventually, that somewhere will catch up with us.
 
This is why I think “the garbage dump” is better thought of as “the Recycling center.” And we should try to only buy things that we make good use of. And we should try and repair when we can and, if possible, find another home for what we no longer need rather than “dump” it. And we should try to buy recycled products to give a market for those making them.
 
It can be hard work. It’s easier and more fun to bring new, shiny things into our lives than to find homes for older, less shiny things. But there is no “away.” The effort will pay us back in the long run.
 
I don’t mean to get preachy, it’s just a phrase that’s always stuck with me since the moment I heard it.”

And now it’s stuck with me: ‘There is no ‘away.’ So, I can no longer throw anything away.

“But how terrible it will be for you who are rich,
    because you have had your easy life.
How terrible it will be for you who are full now,
    because you will be hungry.
How terrible it will be for you who are laughing now,
    because you will be sad and cry.” Jesus