By Steve Smith
Pittsboro, NC – The problem stemming (we’re told) from the lack of CDL drivers is a cascading one. Knowing my closest recycling center would be closed on Sunday, I took my trash there late in the afternoon on Saturday. One of the attendants told me I couldn’t drop off my bag of garbage because both the compactor and the overflow dumpsters were full. He told me, “Expect every Saturday to be like this.”
So now I can’t take my garbage on Sunday OR Saturday, or at least not late in the day on Saturday. As more of my neighbors learn of the situation, will we be forced into competition with one another to get to the dump as early as possible on Saturday lest we miss the window of compactor availability?
Meanwhile my bag of last week’s garbage sits on my front porch, growing more aromatic by the hour, waiting for me to try again today (Monday). This has never happened in my 25 years of living in Chatham.
I don’t think this is an isolated problem, unfortunately, but is connected to larger nationwide and global disruptions that will likely become worse. Little supply/demand dislocations like this one may become bigger and more frequent, as the quality of life we’ve become accustomed to inexorably slips. Politicians won’t fix the problems because 1) they can’t, and 2) their “solutions” will predictably exacerbate them. Some politicians are actually invested in making life miserable for people so they can pose as saviors by taking more control over us. Will we all need to become preppers now?
I had an aunt who buried all of her garbage in her backyard. When I visited her after she had been doing this for half a century, I noticed that her yard was incredibly lush compared to those of her neighbors. Perhaps it’s time to haul out my shovel.