“What is waste?” : I took a mental note that it is probably something that had the potential to end up in a landfill at some point.  We take resources from nature and transform them into something whose lifespan we do not necessarily understand.

1- The visible lifespan of waste:  

If you think of waste to have a life, and try to map it, you would realise that waste is a complete “stranger” whose whereabouts we aren’t aware of. We buy things and they sort of stay with us for different periods of time. This “relationship” could last from an instant to days to years. 

Eg: The groceries I bought were consumed instantly and its waste became out of sight and mind within the same day! The sticky notes I had bought months ago, only got used and stayed on my wall for days.

2- Relationship with waste

This relationship can either be induced by ourselves or we can be introduced to waste by someone else. For example, I bought groceries; that relationship with waste was self induced. At the grocery, when the shopkeeper offers a plastic bag (introduced) I have control in the sense that I can refuse the plastic bag if I’m carrying my own bag which is reusable. 

Introduced or self induced, what we do with the waste once we have consumed it can again be responsible or irresponsible. I was being irresponsible when I didn’t refuse the bag for the one milk packet I bought from the store. 

Maybe, sometimes we just have an illusion of a lack of choice?

3- How is waste generated? 

We are only humans, we make mistakes and we forget things, we lose track of time and do things not so mindfully many times. I noticed that waste can be generated  accidentally or intentionally. 

Sometimes we produce waste(or reduce our relationship span with waste)  by accident- have you ever forgotten a notebook and never seen it ever again? Where did it go? 

When it comes to intentional use, we can generate waste either for a predetermined purpose and sometimes not so deterministically for frivolous fun!- I was once innocently spaced out while wrapping cello tape around my fingers, only to throw it away later.