trash on trash on trash

Yesterday I went to a trash museum. No, I didn't accidentally leave off the "y" or the "ed" from trash. It was an entire exhibit dedicated to something we have all around us and yet never give a second thought to: the trash we produce. 

The museum was divided into three sections. One about the history of Copenhagen's dealings with trash, another one about the current situation, and the final one about "how does this relate to me" / "what can I do about this" etc. 

Surprisingly enough, Copenhagen is built on top of layers and layers of trash. This has a lot to do with the history of the city and how it expanded. Imagine being in charge of a circular city enclosed by walls. No one wants to deal with the smell of waste inside the walls so everyone just dumps it outside the city limits. No big deal, right? But then comes a time when the number of people grows and you have to expand your city. The only way to expand is to knock down those walls and build new walls with a larger circumference. But wait! There's a city dump outside the walls. Hmm. Whadya do? Well, your options are certainly limited - so you build right on top of the dump, of course. And that's exactly what Denmark did. Several times apparently. And when Copenhagen got too big then they started dumping their trash on the then-unpopulated area of Amager (Ah-mah) next door (which is why everyone still calls it Sh*t Island now... pardon my French). Still to this day if you dig under the city you're met with years and years of history via history's trash. You can learn a lot about people by what they throw (and don't throw) out. 

So, currently, what are Copenhageners doing about their trash? Well, for starters, they've stopped dumping it on the land of future homes. And after a couple centuries of using the poor to sweep the streets, they've moved along to some smart solutions. I'll just mention one: incineration. Copenhagen burns most of their waste (if I was really paying attention in the museum I'd mention a percentage). Then it's turned into energy. An interesting facet of this, though, is that they don't really recycle plastic here because, when you burn plastic, it produces a lot of energy. In a very eco-friendly city, I've found it quite surprising to see Copenhageners "carelessly" throw out large amounts of plastic. To be fair, they're really big on recycling glass and paper. And there's a lot being done with using recycled materials to make other products... like felt-covered chairs entirely out of soda bottles (don't ask me how they did that one). There's also a big movement of dumpster diving in Copenhagen. Personally I don't know if I'd want to eat food out of a dumpster all the time. But the museum exhibit did have a giant dumpster that was open for you to climb in and walk through (I'm definitely still a kid at heart). 

Besides recycling at a basic level, I have to admit that I've never really given a lot of thought to what happens with trash after I put it into the can. I mean, if I can't see it anymore it just disappears, right? (Guess I never fully mastered object permanence as a child.) But living in Copenhagen where the vibe of the city is to be both efficient and mindful of the environment I'm beginning to see things differently. I may never be like that family I read about who fit literally a year's worth of non-recyclable/compostable trash into a mason jar, but I can certainly be mindful about other things. Like not overbuying on food at the grocery store so that nothing goes bad. Or not throwing something away when I could recycle it, reuse it in another way or give it to someone else who could. The museum definitely gave me things to think about. 

Excuse me while I finish my water and throw out the bottle... just kidding.