Most of us take our lives for granted. It’s nothing to be ashamed or embarrassed about. It’s simply the nature of the human mind. There’s only so many things we can think about at any given time. And when things always seem to move smoothly in a particular area, we just relegate it to the back of our minds. We expect the sun to rise in the morning. We expect the stars to come out at night. And we expect the cycle of food coming into our home and then it remains leaving to keep us going through all of those daily cycles.
The same general idea holds true for most of the things that keep the modern world spinning. But it’s important to consider the fact that services created and run by humans are very different from inherent natural forces. We can always know for a fact that the sun will rise and set because in the end it just comes down to gravity. The sun’s position in the sky is dictated by gravity’s effect on our planet’s rotation. But food and packaging coming in and out of our lives is a far more fragile thing.
In fact, it’s something that we can disrupt solely by taking it for granted. The main issue is that everything we consume leaves something behind. That’s not a very significant detail if we’re looking at one microwaved meal. Ideally we can put the cardboard into the recycling. Remaining food and plastic packaging can then go into the garbage. And the garbage will in turn empty into a skip bin of some type. At that point it’ll be removed and properly disposed of.
But more of this is dependent on advance planning than we typically realize. Consider just how much garbage an area the size of Melbourne can generate. Saying it’s a lot of trash is an understatement. But now consider the various skip bin types melbourne possesses. We can see a wide variety of bins on display by simply walking around and taking note of them. The point people often fail to consider is why there’s so much variety in the bins. It all comes down to storage and disposal of our waste products.
Many of us just assume that if our trash bag can fit into a bin without falling out than everything is fine. But in reality, the bin needs to properly work with the disposal machinery. The more automated the process the greater chance of garbage falling out. And even the typical approach with multiple people working with the bin will have a high chance of bursting bags open if the bin has overfilled.
This is the primary reason why putting some thought into bin size is such an important issue for the environment. When bins are overfilled the trash often ends up scattered around. Wind and rain will partially dissolve some of it and spread everything over a large area. It can even end up in rivers that feed into lakes or the ocean. Putting some extra thought into things we take for granted can end up protecting everyone. And that’s even true for something as seemingly minor as our weekly garbage pickup.