Waste

Trash. We (man in general) create too much of it (I include myself in this generalization), and then we have to figure out what to do with it. I saw truck loads of trash littering the streets, parks, temples and rolling hills of Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodia (I don’t expect Indonesia to be much different), and now I’m living with my trash on a boat – no dump boats out here. Funny I don’t hesitate to create trash (or criticize others for creating and mismanaging theirs), but I sure don’t like to see it…I guess this is way civilized countries bury it in the ground, sink it in the sea or propose to shoot it into space (All great ideas in theory I’m sure. Too bad we can’t see the pollution and poison created by our waste.).

In addition to not being accustomed to living with my accumulated trash, I’m not used to handling it. At home I have a garbage collector who conveniently takes it away for me.

Here on the boat though most (not all!) trash is thrown into the ocean. (This was a difficult concept for me at first because I despise improper waste handling.) But in fact things like food scraps, paper, even aluminum can safely be tossed into the water without risk of polluting. Plastic, however, is put into garbage bags and tied to the deck, near the mast (the tall pole in the middle of the sailing boat), and carried on the boat until we reach a port where we can throw it away in a trash can (probably to turn up later on a beach or tossed into the jungle).

I’m doing my best to first reduce my waste, then recycle what I can and finally as a last resort I throw it in a plastic bag to be with us for the next month. I’m shocked how much trash two people can create!

Of course we create trash in ways I don’t normally at home.

Before living on the boat I didn’t consider toilet paper to be trash. It was flushed and dissolved down the toilet. Easy, efficient and thoughtless. The boat’s toilet can’t handle toilet paper, so it becomes trash – something that needs handled.
There are two ways of handling used toilet paper. First, my preferred technique, it can be tossed out the bathroom immediately after usage. Second, it must be thrown in a waste basket and dealt with later. The latter technique is used when we are moving, because if you try to throw toilet paper out a window of a moving boat it will fly back and potentially hit the captain in the face, which is exactly what I did.

One morning we were sailing along, and after doing my business I tossed my toilet paper out the window. Unfortunately it didn’t make it down to the water. It was caught in the wind and was caught flying from some mast lines (the lines coming down to the sides of the boat from the giant pole in the middle). The white flags were flapping in the breeze a few feet in front of Kevin when I, unknowingly, came above deck a few minutes later. Thank goodness they caught on the rope!
I’ve become much more aware and careful about handling my trash.