Like I said before, trash is everywhere.
It lines gutters, clutters yards, and peppers the roads. It covers cornfields like mulch.
When we first arrived, pre-corn season, we noticed empty, trash-filled lots on our walks through town. Time passed and we noticed farmers planting corn in the lots. They didn’t clean the lots before planting—rather, they simply pushed the trash to one side, poked holes in the ground, and dropped in the seeds.
And the corn grew, tall, strong, and brilliant green, right up through its blanket of plastic mulch.
in a non-littering moment At a gorgeous local park, the kids found a Styrofoam plate at the water’s edge. So they set it afloat and off it whooshed. I had a minor hissy fit and made the main culprit pick up and appropriately dispose of five pieces of trash as penance. It felt like an inane activity, but I refuse to participate in the littering customs.
While hitching a ride in a friend’s private car, we zipped by the dump.
the workers’ houses
do you see the workers? the vultures? 
I still want to go back some early morning and get more than just a handful of blurry drive bys.
3 Comments
Susan
When I lived in the city, I lived near an area that was 99% Central/South American immigrants. They would get take out food – meals in styrofoam lidded containers – and then just drop them on the ground, plastic utensils and all, when they had had enough. I always wondered why. I am still wondering.
the domestic fringe
So, why do they do this? Why do they throw garbage in the corn fields. It's hard to understand the logic behind that, especially when they're throwing plastic and stuff. I guess I could understand food garbage, like mulch, but not garbage-garbage.
~FringeGirl
Margo
I would FREAK OUT and be zero-waste forever. sighhhhh
I saw your tweet about bananas: try to make some kind of bananas foster kind of thing. Are you able to get butter at ALL? Saute them in butter, add some lime or citrus juice + zest or coconut or raisins, and eat them like a sauce over ice cream or pudding. There's a recipe in More with Less – Jamaican bananas. You could also chop and use them as a topping on curries and rice. And hey, I have put vinaigrette on almost everything and called it a salad – why not experiment and be all cook-y?