Steemians, good morning! Let me take you on a journey...a walk through my thoughts, into my heart.

Every morning, when the sun shines into my window and wakes me up with its announcement of the new day, I stretch my arms, gather my pups and get excited to take on the opportunity presented by life itself.

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I open my bedroom door and suddenly my day gets shrouded in darkness as a black cloud meets me on the other side of the door and has it's way with my face, swimming into my pores and hijacking my lungs. My dogs cough as they try to run and I feel their pain as my own chest constricts, trying to fight the invader.

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(The view from my bedroom window, overlooking the toxic smoke coming from burning of trash.)

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Why is this happening?

I am to the point now where I am getting smogged out every single day by the burning of garbage on the sides of the roads. I live out of town, in the localized area of Bali, Indonesia, away from the tourist central that would never allow this without screaming angry Westerners, threatening never to return... and yet here, every day when I wake up and open my bedroom door, that big black cloud of smoke enters my lungs. After a couple of hours, it dies down only to start back up again near dinner, causing me to have to lock myself up in the kitchen, retreating to the only closed in common area, in attempts to save my poor lungs that I work so hard to keep clean.

This magical, enchanting, picture-perfect destination is being radically abused by pollution but if you think it's only here that's the problem, have I got another story for you! Our beautiful planet is under attack, and we're the ones fighting against her!

Where do you live? Do you have a trash collection service that comes to your drive and picks up your bagged rubbish/trash/garbage/waste (whatever you want to call it!)

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Do you have a coloured bin system, maybe a green one for compost, a blue one for recyclables and a black one for everything else? Maybe your colours are the same as this picture? If you do have these bins, you're fortunate to live somewhere that garbage is being managed.

• Do you use it?
• Do you know how it works/understand what goes in what bin?

It can be confusing, I certainly understand that and with no strict universal system, it varies by area.

I've lived in many countries over the last 5 years of my life and during that time I have seen it all. Dumping in the water, burying, burning... you name it.

Coming from Canada, I grew up separating my waste products from compostable food products from plastics, aluminum and cardboard. I would put the item in question in one of those three bins (actually my town had a separate collection for paper/cardboard vs plastic/aluminum) so I was always very conscious about where I put what.

Whenever I moved to California, I noticed there were no bins at my house! I searched online and found out I would need to purchase them and then put in my request for collection by city council.

Slightly inconvenient to get those bins to my house having no car, but I rented a truck and pushed through, dedicated as I was.

OK city, that's fine, I did it. Now what?

Sharing the knowledge

Living with 2 other males who were born in America and had vastly different education concerning environmental precautions than I had, I found myself in a constant war with the garbage can screaming bloody murder at the guys for throwing out what could be recycled.

I have always been a bit of an environmental advocate... a peace keeper for our beautiful mother Earth, a spokesperson of my heart... but I am especially intense when it comes to RECKLESS ABANDON FOR WASTE. We can do better than that, I know it! We just have to remember to think about it!

Have you ever seen Captain Planet? That's the kind of stuff we need getting us thinking about the world we are all so privileged to be a part of! A couple episodes of this cartoon and you'll be thinking about saving the Earth yourself! ;)

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If you've been following me, you will be familiar with my smile, my heart and my overall ambition to spread love and inspiration around however DO NOT CROSS ME WHEN IT COMES TO MY MOTHER (Earth!)

I am writing this from my heart (as is always the case, I let my heart determine what I write so it's always a mystery for me what will come when I sit down at my computer) but this time, I want you to know that my heart HURTS from the pain of the destruction, writing this to you, tears are welling up behind my eyes as I think about the pain my mother is going through.

I don't get angry all that often anymore, I used to writhe in frustration over what we were doing/not doing. I wanted to fight, scream and kick until something changed but I realized that those efforts often get tagged as "crazy" or "extreme" while harvesting those negative emotions do no one any good and now I want to use my love to help make a difference.

Kill' em with kindness:

It didn't take long for the guys to learn that plastic can be recycled and therefore shouldn't go in the same bin as what's going to the landfill, IN FACT, most of everything we purchased and consumed was recyclable or compostable, leaving only a small mini grocery bag between the 3 of us at most every 2 weeks.

What happened was we all became so proud of our efforts that we constantly strove to do better. I might open the trash can to throw something in it and would be stopped with an alarming "why did you buy that if it needs to be thrown away after?"

My plan had worked and the students had become the masters. Whenever we had another girl move in with us to help us cope with the insane price of rent in San Fransisco, I walked in one day to my roommate schooling her by the garbage bin, scolding her for throwing away plastic and marching her out to our blue bin ;)

If you live somewhere in North America where you don't have recycling, you should check with your local council as you might simply have to request it. Other places have drop off spots.

When I was living in Texas, I collected all of my recycling in the garage and brought it to the local grocery store's recycling bins and sorted it there.

Where there is a will there is a way!

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Okay, this stroll down memory lane served as an example of what is possible with some education and thought about what we are using.

Now, New Zealand was really good about recycling, they had their bins the same way and at least in the circles I was part of, composting was popular as well! Way to go NZ! Maybe that's why so much of it is unpolluted!

I am going to tread lightly, I mean no offense but based off my observations across the globe, this is what I have come to see. First world countries are more likely to be educated about environmental issues. Formal education institutions are at least in part raising awareness of our waste/pollution crises and strategies are being put into place to correct some of these serious issues however, we're all still polluting and wasting in our own ways.

When I moved to Bali and was going over my lease agreement with my landlord, I asked her what to do with our recyclables.
She has been in a relationship with a European for over 15 years and so she looked at me with sympathetic eyes and said "I am sorry, we don't really do that here. The people burn their trash. There is no education for that like in your countries."

I have seen this phenomena all over the world. It started in Belize, Central America for me. Moving there from my impressive low-trash contribution that I told you about to trash littering all of the ditches, rivers and sides of the street. My heart broke when I first saw the intensity of it all.

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This is not a picture of Bali, it's a photo I found online showcasing some of what I saw in Central America.

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I remember being completely irate when I first saw the dump site on the side of the road, up in flames... Cars, tires, glass, water bottles by the hundreds, packaging, wrappers, strollers, toys, old fruit, you name it, all piled high being set alight with some gasoline.

Horrified I began ranting and rambling about how we needed to stop it and do something to which I was told calmly "it's the way here. This is how they dispose of their trash, there is no other option for them."

I am not saying that burying our trash is better than burning it. Both are equally unpleasant for the environment.

However, burning trash like this feels like the Pokemon Muk entering into my throat and causing me chest pain, coughing and over-all un-wellness.

Imagine how Mother Earth must feel.

Let's talk about YOUR trash and what you can do:

• How many bags do you produce each week?
• Is your garbage collected or do you drop it somewhere?
• Where does it go after it's been collected?
• Do you sort your recycables?
• What do you do with your food scraps?
• Do you know food scraps make great compost, increasing biodiversity in soil and therefore encouraging plant growth, regeneration and overall soil health for more growing possibilities? IE: more food. YOU CAN CREATE FOOD FROM FOOD. Some food will even grow from the seeds of your scraps (crazy right?)

This is a poor me, poor you, poor us post. And you know what, we can do something about it! We can make a change!

Would you treat your mother this way?

• Would you put toxins into her?
• Would you set fire to her skin?
• Would you shove your garbage down her throat?
• Would you neglect and disrespect her health?

NO! Of course you wouldn't! So why is it OK to do it to our life-source? Our provider of life? Can we please stop abusing this loving entity that has given us a home to live on, a bounty of food and water to sustain us, her love and the environment she provides for us keeps us alive, healthy and well.

I've just decided right now that I will coach anyone who wants to learn about recycling for free, you just have to comment on here and let me know. Your country is going to be a big determinant in how and what you can do to make your own difference.

The best thing we can do is produce and consume less.

I can help you as much as I can learn how to sort your materials and get in touch with organizations for pick ups but honestly, the best thing I/you/we can do is to monitor what we consume and try to be more conscious of it.

• How much do we buy that we don't need?
• Instead of throwing items away, we can recycle, reuse or donate!
• Do you recycle your toilet paper rolls? They're cardboard and can be recycled or reused for crafts!
• We can support charity shops that accept donations and resell for charities (I get almost all of my clothes recycled, hand-me-down or bought from garage sales/online sales)
• All of this can save you money! Your sour-cream container can be washed and used the same as Tupperware containers for storing items in!

I hope that if nothing else, this post causes you to think about your consumption, your trash and what's coming of it. I know sometimes it's so easy to just close our minds off to it, put it in the bag at the end of the drive and move on with our lives but the Earth is getting plagued by trash my friends, it's insanity how much we actually dispose of. Do you think we could work together to try to mitigate that even just slightly? I betcha Mother Earth would be mighty appreciative =D

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The feeling of making a difference, no matter how small it may be, is a feeling that can light up your heart! - @heart-to-heart's heart.

I know this post ended up being long, honestly... I had started off being very angry that once again, smog was 'ruining my day' however, I've had time to process that stance and from my perspective now, I see it as an opportunity for us to have this discussion and call for a change!

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Sending you love today and everyday, let us take care of our Mother together. A happy momma is always a better day! ;)

I'm proud to be riding on the #ecotrain!
You can find out more about us and what we do here!

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XO,
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