Throwing Stuff Away is Cathartic
And that makes me ashamed.
For years, I’ve been wanting someone to write a screed entitled Bad Environmentalist about all the ways people with good intentions fail to live up to their environmental values, in a similar vein to Roxane Gay’s book Bad Feminist.
Yes, I know, why can’t that someone be me…maybe it will one day. But that day is not today.
There’s something we don’t talk about often in the environmentalist space, and that’s how it’s actually pretty hard to be a very good environmentalist (if you’re focusing on individual habits/consumption).
Being a very good environmentalist requires you to consciously work harder than most people on decisions we put on autopilot.
It requires you to factor in the environmental cost of plastic when eating out and bring your own reusable containers (or limit your consumption of takeout and cook at home, preferably from food you sourced from a refill store or a more expensive store with compostable packaging).
It requires you to carefully plan ahead — not only meal prepping but taking stock of freezer, fridge and pantry space — so you have a system in place not to waste food.
It requires you to make sure everything in your home has utility and that you can get as much use out of items as possible, such as mending torn clothes or turning them into rags for cleaning.
And so on and so on. All of these kinds of calculations and preparedness, by the way, are pretty taxing for neurotypical folks, let alone people with executive function challenges (like people with chronic illness/brain fog, people with ADHD, or anyone lacking support systems and living alone who has to shoulder all these extra obligations themselves).
For those of us who need extra support in these areas, we may feel guilt around throwing things away because it feels wasteful and bad for the environment.
But then the tradeoff is that we live with clutter and confusion, making our lives worse. Sure, delaying throwing something out for another twenty years until we figure out better waste systems on a global scale may be better for the environment. But it’s not good for our sanity.
Yes, we can donate items, but the reality is that not all items are fit to be donated. We saw this happen during the LA fires, when well-intentioned people donated clothing that was in no condition to wear, contributing to waste in landfills.
Sometimes, things have to be thrown away. Though I am heartened by new laws to aid clothing recycling and cut down on fast fashion waste, like the one implemented in California.
When you’ve dealt with clutter for a long time, throwing things away can be cathartic. That catharsis makes you feel bad because you feel misaligned with one of your core values of caring about the planet.
Have you ever felt a conflict between a core value you hold (like being an environmentalist) and a barrier that got in the way of that value? Let me know in the comments.
Until next time!