By Min Min Zan
Every day, an ordinary household produces a surprising amount of garbage. In my home, four people live together, yet by the end of a single day we can fill approximately one large plastic bag with rubbish. Each person contributes only a small amount: a food wrapper, a disposable cup, a plastic packet, a used tissue, a bottle, or some leftover food. However, when these small things are collected together, they become a large and unpleasant burden. This simple experience has made me think not only about garbage, but also about human beings, our habits, our bodies, and the way we are eventually treated after death.
At first, household waste seems harmless. One plastic bag does not appear to be a serious problem. We may tie it tightly and place it outside the house, believing that someone will come and take it away. Yet garbage does not disappear merely because it leaves our sight. It remains somewhere in the world. It is carried to a collection point, dumped beside a road, burned in the open air, buried in the ground, or left to decompose slowly. The plastic items that we use for only a few minutes may remain in the environment for many years. A convenient action in the present therefore creates a lasting problem for the future.
The problem becomes more serious when the municipal garbage truck cannot come regularly. In my neighbourhood, the garbage collection vehicle may arrive only about once a week instead of every day. During the days between collections, the bags of rubbish remain outside. Food scraps begin to rot, and an unpleasant sour smell spreads through the air. Flies, insects, stray animals, and sometimes disease-causing organisms are attracted to the waste. A place that should be clean and comfortable becomes dirty and unhealthy. The garbage is no longer simply an object that we want to remove; it becomes a living sign of neglect and a threat to the people who must live near it.
This situation also reveals an important truth about modern life. Human beings consume far more than they need. We buy products wrapped in several layers of plastic, use disposable items once, and throw them away without thinking deeply about their destination. Many of us are careful about what enters our homes, but we are less concerned about what leaves them. We want clean rooms, fresh food, and pleasant surroundings, but we often ignore the invisible system that must handle the waste created by our comfort. In this way, garbage reflects our lifestyle. It shows how much we consume, how carelessly we behave, and how willing we are to transfer our responsibilities to other people.
The municipal workers who collect garbage perform difficult and necessary work. They deal with bad smells, sharp objects, spoiled food, chemicals, and heavy bags so that society can live more comfortably. Nevertheless, they cannot solve the entire problem by themselves. Citizens must take responsibility for reducing waste, separating recyclable materials, storing rubbish safely, and disposing of it properly. A clean city is not created only by garbage trucks; it is created by the daily discipline of every household.
I can still remove the garbage from my home while I am alive. I can tie the bags, carry them outside, separate what can be reused, and try to keep my surroundings clean. These actions are small, but they remind me that responsibility begins with the individual. I should not wait for someone else to solve a problem that I have helped create. If every family produced less waste and managed it more carefully, the burden on municipal services would become lighter. Even simple changes, such as using reusable bags, avoiding unnecessary packaging, composting organic waste, and refusing single-use plastic, could make a meaningful difference when many people practise them together.
However, the thought of garbage leads me to a darker and more philosophical idea. One day, I will die. My body, which I now regard as the centre of my identity, will become something that others must handle. My family will carry me to a cemetery, where I will be buried or cremated according to custom. From one point of view, the dead body becomes a physical remainder that must be placed in a particular location and separated from daily life. In this sense, a human being may seem to become like another form of waste: something that has completed its useful existence and must be removed.
This comparison may sound harsh, but it forces us to question the meaning of human value. Are people valuable only while they are productive, healthy, attractive, or useful to others? Do we become waste when we can no longer work or speak? Of course, a person is not the same as a plastic bag. Garbage has no memories, relationships, feelings, or moral worth. A human being remains meaningful because of the love shared with others, the experiences remembered by family and friends, and the influence left on the community. Even after death, a person continues to exist in the stories and emotions of those who remain. The cemetery may receive the body, but it cannot receive a whole human life.
Nevertheless, the image of being discarded in a cemetery contains an uncomfortable warning. Human beings often treat nature and one another as objects to be used and thrown away. We create rubbish when something no longer serves us, and we sometimes neglect elderly people, poor people, sick people, and workers when they are no longer convenient. A society that does not respect its garbage workers may also fail to respect human beings who are vulnerable.
The way we handle waste therefore expresses the kind of society we are building. Care, dignity, and responsibility should continue even when something is unpleasant, old, broken, or no longer useful.
The connection between people and garbage is ultimately a lesson about limits. We are temporary creatures living in a limited world. Our homes, our cities, our bodies, and the objects we produce will all eventually change and disappear. Because life is temporary, we should not consume thoughtlessly or leave our problems for future generations. We should live with greater awareness: creating less waste, respecting the people who manage it, and remembering that everything we throw away goes somewhere.
My household’s single bag of garbage may seem insignificant, but it represents a much larger human problem. It contains the evidence of our daily choices and the consequences we prefer not to see. I can remove the bag today, but I cannot remove the responsibility behind it. And when my own life ends, I hope that people will remember that I was never merely something to be discarded. I was a human being who shared the same fragile world, created both beauty and waste, and had the duty to leave that world a little cleaner, kinder, and more dignified than I found it.
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