Near Naples in Italy, the environment is on the verge of destruction, and it’s all thanks to the local Italian mafia. 

Garbage is expensive to dispose of, and in a place like Italy where municipal dumps are filling up fast, getting rid of waste is an ongoing problem. Especially when it comes to hazardous waste.

Legally disposing of hazardous waste is expensive, so what happened in Italy to make it easier and more economical for companies to do? The Italian mafia stepped in. Near Naples, in the region of Campania, the home stomping grounds of the Camorra, started a lucrative business of disposing of hazardous waste from Italian manufacturers and others. How? They buried it in their own backyard.

One of Italy’s three main mafia organizations, the Camorra is now being accused of leaving an environmental disaster behind them, one that the local officials are only now starting to grapple with. The water is polluted, people have cancer and a once pristine landscape has turned into one dotted with garbage and the dark smoke caused from burning trash.

On the question of health, the New York Times reported:

“The biggest question is whether the buried toxic materials could cause a public health crisis. More than 500,000 people live in the region, and the Lancet study and other reports have documented cancer rates far above the national average. While no study has sought to prove a direct link, a World Health Organization report conducted with national and local health institutions documented clusters of liver, kidney, pancreatic and other cancers in areas known as dump sites.”

It’s not just a question of health and environment, it’s also a question of food and agriculture, a rich tradition that the region is known for. Toxic waste in the ground means it can easily seeping into the water stream. “It flows all over the place,” commander of the Naples region for Italy’s environmental police General Sergio Costa told the New York Times. “You can be a farmer who is unwittingly irrigating your land with polluted water.”

But even though they’re the  Italian mafia, shouldn’t the Camorra care that they are literally destroying their backyard? They have a solution for that, according to a wiretapped conversation between a Camorra boss and another mobster, in which the mobster voiced his concerns over polluting their own houses and land, cited in the New York Times article.

“What are we going to drink?” he asked.

“You idiot,” the boss replied. “We’ll drink mineral water.”

But as we all know, bottled water isn’t the solution to our problems, it’s the beginning. Someone might want to inform the boss.

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Image: Carlo Mirante

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ColumnHave you ever intentionally engaged in a mind-bending, dizzying, life-changing cultural experience? Have you self-induced what we call hyperkulture? Consider the idea that you can purposefully step outside your comfort zone to shift your perspectives—and that time traveling is not required to put yourself in swoon’s way.

A sudden, icy sweat. A spinning sensation. The immediate need for a chair. It took more than a few minutes to regroup—perhaps because that necessary chair was nowhere to be found—but I had some experience with this feeling. The race back from 1564 to 2013 seemed to take longer that it actually did, but that’s understandable: Time traveling has a way of knocking you off your rails.

The venue for said swoon was Shakespeare’s birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon—in the actual bedroom where it’s said the great Bard made his grand entrance. As a writer and fan of his work (how could that not be an understatement?), a lot had conspired that afternoon to leave me leaning against a wall, struggling to take in air. What was initially an earnest, if touristy, moment was transformed by a blood-to-the-brain rush of understanding that this now-visualized birth so many centuries ago was critical to not only my choice of profession but to my intellectual and emotional vocabulary—this screaming (of course!) infant would eventually teach me how to think and inform who I am. And not only me. All of us. It’s Shakespeare, for god’s sake, born here—right here—and destined to change the trajectory of our culture. Yes. For this writer… some air, please.

I know Shakespeare isn’t everyone’s life-altering cup of tea, but I’m sure many of you are familiar with the phenomenon I experienced that day in England. We all have had interactions with discrete articulations of our human culture—in the realms of art, literature, travel, food, history, technology and media (or, in my case here, that bedroom)—that overwhelm us. These are personal growth moments and, I think, by definition positive. They are instances where we’re touched deeply, beyond the intellect, so that our soul spins and we can distinctly feel our emotional anatomy change. And these moments even have a name (a few names actually). To varying degrees, these states of mind are sometimes referred to as Stendhal or Florence syndrome—or Hyperkulturemia.

According to one medical dictionary, the syndrome is defined as “a psychosomatic response—tachycardia, vertigo, fainting, confusion and even hallucinations—when the ‘victim’ is exposed to particularly beautiful, or large amounts of, art in a single place—e.g., Florence (Italy), which has a high concentration of classic works; the response can also occur when a person is overwhelmed by breathtaking natural beauty.”

For this discussion, I think we can safely broaden the causes beyond art and nature to include other cultural encounters (read: that bedroom). I also think we can leave the veracity of the notion that this is a cap S-Syndrome to specialists above my medical pay grade. But in any case, regarding the times in my life when I have experienced such a state, the French author Stendhal was spot on in 1826 when he wrote about it in “Rome, Naples and Florence” (from a 1959 translation.):

Absorbed in the contemplation of sublime beauty, I could perceive its very essence close at hand; I could, as it were, feel the stuff of it beneath my fingertips. I had attained to that supreme degree of sensibility where the divine intentions of art merge with the impassioned sensuality of emotion. As I emerged from the porch of the Santa Croce, I was seized with a fierce palpitation of the heart (the same symptom which, in Berlin, is referred to as an attack of the nerves); the wellspring of life was dried up within me, and I walked in constant fear of falling to the ground.

I don’t want to take lightly what some might call a severe mental-health event. (Hallucinations?) But I also want to be clear that these happenings are more than just “oh my!” moments—they are true swoons, in every sense of the word, save perhaps hitting the ground. (Thank you nearby chairs, walls, et al.)

Making It Happen Not long after returning to the U.S. late last year, as I looked back at my journey and Shakespeare reaction, something occurred to me. Up until then, this kind of thing had happened maybe once every few years since my late teens. Yet this trip had somehow produced five such episodes in just four months. Though I still consider these instances rare and unexpected, something was going on that triggered these experiences—or at least allowed them to take place.

Here’s some context: I had left California for extended travel overseas for the first time in years, making good on a promise to return to my globetrotting ways after Things 1 and 2 had left home for university. I made the trip with my girlfriend of eight years, Mihaela, and like my days traveling as a youth, had a fairly slipshod approach to time and money planning. We formulated the trip as we went, discovering along the way that my primary editorial client would be withholding payments in unpredictable, seemingly sadistic ways. Though punctuated by a few lovely moments of luxury, our journey—including time in Eastern and Western Europe—would feature some good ol’ down-and-out, cold-water-flat time, with me slamming away at my keyboard (she says I type like Jim Carrey answering prayers via email in “Bruce Almighty”) while she went out in search of cheap veggies to stew for dinner.

All of this is not to complain, by any means. The trip was glorious and brilliant and in almost constant high relief. But we for sure had left our relaxed Bay Area comfort zone and, back to our story’s syndrome of interest, this was a good thing. I firmly believe that being on our heels opened the door to the above-mentioned byproduct—and again, not once, but five times.

Aside from the Stratford-upon-Avon experience, it happened in Spain in the Plaza Mayor, where one evening I could not keep my hands from shaking when attempting to take a photograph. It happened in Florence while taking in Masaccio’s masterworks in Santa Maria del Carmine. And then twice in Paris (but of course)—once in the Pompidou in front of Joan Miró’s Bleu triptych and another time during the first of two visits to Atelier Brancusi. Then there was London, where I happened upon Jack Kerouac’s On the Road scroll temporarily on display at the British Library. I’ll spare the details of these events (each one a story), but suffice to say that I do not diminish my many experiences during these months by saying these five quite literally floored me, each in their own way changing the way I think.

For me, having done the math, there’s a great takeaway here. I think we can increase the chances of such life-changing cultural experiences—call it hyperkulture—occurring in our lives if we take risks. This is not to say that you need to go time traveling, or out on some financial edge or upend your life. Nor do you have to be in Florence—or Paris or London or even Kathmandu—to access those things that will push your personal envelope. But rather and more simply, if we purposefully and actively take ourselves outside our comfort zones, we’re more likely to have encounters that will shift our perspectives. It could be as easy as turning off your phone and getting lost in a museum. Or hiking into the forest with a tent but without a plan. However we wish to do it, to initiate personal change and growth, we can, in fact, put ourselves “in swoon’s way.”

Scott Adelson is EcoSalon’s Senior Editor of HyperKulture, a monthly column that explores opening cultural doors to initiate personal change. He is also the author of InPRINT, which reviews and discusses books, new and old. You can reach him at scott@adelson.org and follow him @scottadelson on Twitter.

Top image: Wikimedia Commons

Other images: Scott Adelson Related on EcoSalon:

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InPRINT: One the Road – Again: Revisiting Jack Kerouac

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Laura in Los Angeles wants to travel to Italy without breaking the bank. She writes:

“I am dying to travel to Italy and want to hit Rome, Florence/Tuscany, Venice and perhaps a beach destination on our trip (4 spots may be too much). I’ll be going for two weeks, preferably three, in September or October. Affordability is important. Can you help me plan my trip?”

Absolutely! I love getting requests like this. Follow my recommendations to get your trip planning started.

For your first trip to Italy, I recommend hitting the three classic destinations you mentioned – Rome, Florence, and Venice, with a week based in each city. While Italy’s beach destinations are incredible, I’d recommend saving them for a future vacation.

By using the cities as your home bases for each respective week, you’ll get a good overview of what Italy has to offer, as well as the ability to sightsee at your own relaxed pace. Additionally, you’ll also have the opportunity to branch out for day trips, should you want to see the surrounding countryside and nearby towns and villages.

Airfare/Transportation

You’ve already made a budget-friendly decision by traveling in autumn, the shoulder season. Airfares will be less expensive compared to peak summer travel, and when I priced out flights from the Los Angeles area, I found the best prices for travel in October. Per-person flights were around $1,000 per person for either a two- or three-week trip.

I looked at multi-city flights, with travel from L.A. to Rome for your departing flight, then Venice to L.A. for your return. I like this option as you won’t need to spend precious vacation time in transit back to your originating airport. The price wasn’t noticeably different from round-trip L.A. to Rome flights, but the time you’ll gain in not having to backtrack is crucial.

Before you book, track fares online for a week or so (no more than two), so you can see the range of prices and their fluctuations. I like checking both Kayak and Vayama for international fares, but you should also check the big three—Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity—when doing your research.

Remember that non-stop flights will always be more expensive (and possibly not even an option from the West Coast), and that mid-week flights are usually cheaper than weekend travel. Additionally, airlines tend to announce new sales on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Be sure to check fares on those dates in particular, as matching prices and market competition tend to result in the cheapest fares.

For international flights, it’s a good rule of thumb to book at least two months in advance to get the best prices and availability. Within an eight-week window, seat inventory often gets tighter, and you’ll pay more.

With these tips in mind, book your airfare when you see a price that aligns with your budget.

Once you’re in Italy, plan on taking trains in between cities. It’s the easiest and most cost-effective way to travel in Italy on a budget, and gives you a great flavor for the countryside and easy access to the entire country, cities and small towns alike. The websites for Rail Europe and Eurostar have pre-booking information, so you can budget in advance and determine fare classes, schedules, high-speed vs. local trains, etc. Once you’ve got a sense of what you can expect to spend in-country on trains (both money and time-wise), you can decide whether you want to book in advance or be spontaneous with your itinerary.

Accommodations

Start your hotel search at EuroCheapo, which offers curated hotel listings from an editorial staff that looks for both quality and affordability. At press time, EuroCheapo had B&Bs in Rome from $400 for a six-night stay (or approximately $67/night, double occupancy).

Live like a local (or with the locals!) with a vacation or room rental setting. In Florence, Airbnb has private rooms within local apartments from $60/night, or $91/night to rent an entire apartment.

Get some money back. Tingo has Venice hotels from $65/night, and if the price drops after you book, you’ll automatically get a refund for the price difference. This is a great way to book without having to worry about whether you’ve gotten the best deal.

Additionally, don’t be afraid of hostels. In Europe, you can often find quite nice accommodations (and make new friends) with this lodging type. If you’re not spending a lot of time in your room, it can be a great way to save.

Things to Do

Rick Steves is always fun for both the affordable and authentic. You won’t find any tourist traps with his recommendations.

Start making your must-see list with inspiration from National Geographic’s online photo galleries. My “have to go back and see this” list has gotten longer thanks to the lush visuals on their Italy Guide.

Questions about tipping? Wondering how long the daily siesta lasts? Want to learn some key phrases in Italian? Get answers to the everyday and be in the know about local customs with the Culture Shock! Guide to Italy. These handy pocket guides are indispensable plane reading and can help avoid any etiquette faux pas in-country.

Is there a place you’d love to visit, but are feeling overwhelmed with planning your trip? The Journey Genie would love to help! Send your trip-planning request to contact@ecosalon.com and we’ll consider it for a future article.

Main Image: Pietro Ricciardi

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Bringing meaning to the joy of eating.

When the “An apple a day keeps the doctor away” proverb is the only adage in your arsenal of food wisdom, it’s time to bulk up on new things to say. From Ireland to China and the likes of Helen Keller to Ronald Reagan, these 20 quotes will bring even more meaning and joy to the act of eating.

When I am eating I am deaf and dumb. –Russia

To eat is human, to digest, divine. –Mark Twain

Life is too short to drink bad wine. –France

Whose bread I eat, his song I sing. –Germany

Too many cooks spoil the broth. –Italy

At the table with good friends and family you do not become old. –Italy

If you can’t feed a hundred people, then just feed one. –Mother Theresa

Fine words do not produce food. –Nigeria

If you are looking for a fly in your food, it means that you are full. –South Africa

Avoid fruits and nuts. You are what you eat. –Jim Davis (Garfield)

Who fasts but does no other good saves his bread but goes to hell. –Italy

There is no sincerer love than the love of food. –Bernard Shaw

He who takes medicine and neglects to diet wastes the skill of his doctors. –China

It is easier to halve the potato when there’s love. –Ireland

A piece of bread in one’s pocket is better than a feather in one’s hat. –Sweden

You can tell a lot about a fellow’s character by his way of eating jelly beans. –Ronald Reagan

Give a man a fish, you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and you have fed him for a lifetime. –China

The good Lord has changed water into wine, so how can drinking beer be a sin? –Belgium

Happiness rarely keeps company with an empty stomach. –Helen Keller

Food tastes best when you eat it with your own spoon. –Denmark

Images: B@ni

Aylin Erman currently resides in Istanbul and is creator of plant-based recipe website GlowKitchen.

Check out our article on 50 pick up lines for foodies

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How in tune were our ancestors with being good stewards of the planet?

Things were better in the old days. People were more in tune with the natural world, the air was cleaner, the land less harassed by our demands upon it. The world was, in short, greener. We’ve all heard it before – but is it true? Of course it is – except when you start looking at the details. Don’t go putting our ancestors up on a pedestal of eco-friendly excellence before you know a little more history.

This week, we go back to Ancient Rome, take a deep breath – and splutter.

Get enough people in one place and air quality is going to take a dive. Get them living in one place and your real problems start. While it’s true that cities of 2,000 years ago lacked the intense urbanization that today crams people together and on top of each other in ways inconceivable to the ancient world, they also lacked our relatively cleaner energy-producing ways. Such was the case with Rome, a city housing not only wood-burning domestic buildings (including an estimated 800+ heated bath-houses) but many craft working industries. Statesman Seneca, the tutor of Emperor Nero, wrote of “the stink, soot and heavy air” hanging over the city, popularly known as gravioris caeli (“heavy heaven”). With air quality came the smells – the stink of garbage, of unrestricted industry (including leather tanning, a process often involving urine) and of poorly treated sewage.

How much have we ecologically evolved over the years?

How did the Romans tackle the problem? Like they tackled most of their other problems – with legislation and construction projects. The sewage designs first laid down by the pre-Roman Etruscan people in 500BC were expanded. The Empire’s Justinian Code laid down the first riparian rights – the legal process of allocation and access to water supplies – and defined both water and air as finite public property to be maintained for the benefit of all. New industrial laws pushed certain crafts to areas where they couldn’t pollute domestic air supplies (including, in one law, the cheesemakers – not so blessed in Roman times, it seems). To take the pressure off the sewage-fouled Tiber, the Romans built extensive aqueduct systems to bring freshwater into the capital.

It’s not known how well this alleviated problems in Rome, but it seems indoor pollution remained an issue right across Italy: the inside of the average Roman building became blackened with soot as time went on, as noted by poet Horatius, and recent analysis of skeletons of people buried by the eruption of Vesuvius show signs of anthracosis. Whether you stayed indoors or outdoors to get your 20,000 liters of air a day, life as an ancient Roman appears to have been hard on the lungs.

Images: kevinpoh and Rilind Hoxha.

The post Ecological Lessons From History: Friends, Romans, Don’t Breathe In appeared first on EcoSalon.

The Grand Tour and beyond.

We’re all familiar with the rolling hills of Tuscany, the cliffs of Santorini, the Eiffel Tower in Paris. But Europe is so much more than classic postcard images. As the continent’s Eastern half becomes more accessible, spots like the ports of Dubrovnik, the caves of Slovenia, and the Renaissance towns of the Czech Republic are becoming more popular as travelers venture off the traditional backpacker’s route. As everywhere, sustainable tourism practices are needed to protect this region’s intense natural beauty.

(above) Appenzell Innerrhoden, Switzerland

Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK

Telc, Czech Republic

Cyprus

Bua, Sweden

Reykjavik, Iceland

Istanbul, Turkey

Mariazell, Austria

Kiev, Ukraine

Crete, Greece

St. Petersburg, Russia

The Pyrenees, Aquitaine, France

Wick, Scotland

Aalesund, Norway

Berlin, Germany

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Eyjafjallajökull, Iceland

Capri, Italy 

Karkonosze, Poland

Postojna Cave, Slovenia

Paris, France

Margam Park, Wales, UK

Dresden, Germany

Barbarin, Spain

Berg, Austria

Florence, Italy

Copenhagen, Denmark

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Luster Kommune, Norway

Porto, Portugal

Boka Kotorska, Montenegro

Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia

Lanzada, Spain

Castelluccio di Norcia, Italy

Moscow, Russia

Skradinski Buk, Croatia

London, England, UK

Lake Baikal, Siberia, Russia

Neuchâtel, Switzerland

Santorini, Greece

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Set in the South Tyrolean Dolomite mountains of Italy, the Vigilus Mountain Resort is perfect place to rest year-round.

The Vigilus Mountain Resort is said to be like an island in the mountains, located in the South Tyrolean Dolomites of Italy. Each room has an organic feeling with elements such as clay, glass, stone and linen mixing with the pleasant aroma of wood and fresh air. The panoramic windows offer dramatic views for miles, giving guests the sensation of bunking out in a modern tree house. The resort is accessible only by foot or cable car, which means no traffic or noise, connecting guests that much more directly with the sounds of nature.

The main building was designed to resemble a fallen tree lying in the woods; the wooden lattice façade looks like bark. From a sustainability standpoint, local materials were used during its construction. Guests are invited to take advantage of the spring water pool, to indulge in fresh, local food, and to explore the property. At the Vigilus, “nature is the gym” and the resort offers mountain biking, Nordic walking, hiking, snowshoeing, and toboggan rides. If you are looking to relax, take a deep breath, and connect with nature, the Vigilus is the place for you.

If you go: take advantage of one of the many packages offered. Rates start at approximately $270.00USD per night.

Places & Spaces is a travel guide that will inspire you to carve out a vacation on your calendar. All of the gorgeous locations and accommodations in our guide share our concern for the environment. From tent glamping to lavish built environments, fair warning, you’ll feel compelled to pack your suitcase.

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Imagine the consequences of 20 years of nuclear waste dumping in the blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea that surround the Italian Peninsula and its islands.

It’s an unfolding crisis that has the international community alarmed, including the fishing interests in Japan.

We’re talking about the coasts of 22 countries in Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, and a pending ecological and public health disaster which is being allegedly swept under the rug by the Italian government.

I only learned about it recently in a Counterpunch post on the nightmare, passed along to me by a devastated reader. Meantime, the disaster is also catching on in the mainstream media.

The post writer, Michael Leonardi, is a university educator who lives in Calabria with his wife and baby. He says after returning from a visit to the States, he was alarmed to learn that the Tyrrhenian Sea – which his daughter has been bathing in since birth – was intentionally poisoned with toxic waste.

“How shocked and dismayed we were to discover that government officials have known about it all along,” he shares. “And how enraged we are that a journalist has been killed, possibly for trying to reveal the truth about the disposal of waste by the international Ecomafia and their colluding government and corporate interests.”

The journalist described was Rai television reporter Ilaria Alpi. Leonardi says she was following the trail of arms and toxic garbage trafficking from Italy to Somalia in 1994 when she and her camera man, Miran Hrovatin, were gunned down and killed in Mogadishu.

“Many here believe, including the Mafia pentito, Franceso Fonti, that she was killed because she learned too much about the collusion between the Mafia and Italian military,” argues a bold Leonardi.

So how is the dumping engineered by the bad guys?

Leonardi says dozens of ships with the radioactive and toxic cargoes have been intentionally sunk by organized crime syndicates.

Leonardi says epidemic levels of cancerous tumors and thyroid problems have occurred in the area and along the coasts of the Mediterranean – where fishermen make a living by selling their catch throughout Italian and on the international market.

The public outcry is heating up as Greenpeace and the Italian environmental organization Legambiente work to bring the disaster to the surface. CNN reported on the scuttled hips, as well, last week. The report says it is believed between 32 and 41 of the ships sunk in international waters between Italy, Greece and Spain.

Lending credence to the sinking, testimony by Franceso Fonti, who admitted his role in helping to sink three ships in the fishing waters, including the Cunsky.

Last week a robot sub was sent down off the coast of Centraro to shoot photos of the ship thought to be the Cunsky. The images document the presence of drums like those used to transport and store radioactive and toxic wastes. The hope is that the barrels are still in tact but no one knows for certain what they contain.

“Traces of Mercury and Cesnium 137 have recently been found near the town of Amantea in Calabria further south of Cetraro by about 50 kilimeters,” explains Leonardi. “Amantea is considered a “hot spot” for tumors and ground temperature around the contamination area is six degrees warmer than normal.

“The population is demanding the truth and government action,” he says, adding international cooperation is needed.

Images: enigmachck1, Wiki, Wiki

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My mother, the nice Jewish lady seen here at her box at the Hollywood Bowl,  is among the biggest paper and water consumers in the country. It hasn’t been easy getting her to turn over a new leaf. (Or rather, fewer of them.)

She has a varied and colorful history of helping herself to fistfuls of disposable napkins at restaurants, collecting hundreds of brown paper grocery bags from Gelson’s Market and requiring daily soaks or showers. She’s pretty darn clean, my mother.

“I never, ever get dressed before bathing,” she has always told me.

“What? So you’ve never heard of French cologne?”

Last summer, I played the dutiful daughter and learned Italian to help mom out on our trip to Italy in September. Turns out, the only phrase that came in handy from Rome to Como was piu l’asciugamani, por favore: More towels, please. Uttered even more frequently to the nice Italian chambermaids was piu faccia l’asciugamani: More face towels!

If there’s someone out there who uses more wash cloths than my 80-year-old mother, I’d like to meet her. No exaggeration, there were several 3-foot high stacks of  Italian terrycloth squares atop the marble vanity of each hotel we visited. How does one person use so many towels without wiping off their face?

The thing is, she would never use a towel more than once. Some people go through towels but they hang them to dry and use them again. Mom won’t even wear one of her 200 Façonnable print blouses more than once without dry cleaning it. Who knew daily treks to Gelson’s Market could work up such a sweat?

And as far as paper napkins and facial tissues are concerned, I think she associates having ample supplies on hand with being well-cared for.

Yep, that’s how Cherie rolls. I love her dearly and wouldn’t trade her in for anyone (except of course, Joan Rivers, and who wouldn’t?). But I have been frustrated trying to convert her to the ways of the unwashed revolutionaries fighting to conserve resources.

Funny, mom is a dichotomy in some ways; she stays out of the sun, shuns drugs (even aspirin) and sips herb tea instead of coffee. But she can’t seem to get on board that eco bus, apart from abiding by L.A. drought restrictions on water use.

Before he died two years ago, my dad, a real estate developer, considered himself to be an early conservationist.

The logo on his office stationary read, “The environment is our business.” He was  frugal and a stickler about turning off lights, shutting off air, cutting down on sprinkler and telephone use, buying used cars for his kids and only building as much housing as he felt the market required. He was one of the first advocates of a mass transit system in L.A. He swore by solar power and used it to warm his pool starting in the 70s.

After dad’s years of chronic scolding, mom did learn to turn off lights and only cranks the heat when she is “freezing to death.”

Yet visits to her McMansion in the Valley become guilt-ridden ones for me and my conscientious kids as we stand idly by watching Nana toss paper and plastic into the garbage. Her gated community even offers recycling and composting bins to be picked up by the waste removal company. The kids and I have explained the benefits of composting to her many times, to which she has replied:

“Why would you throw extra food into a container when you have a garbage disposal?”

In truth, I can’t see her stomaching such a crude process as composting. After all, her breakfast room place settings go into the dishwasher even if no one has touched the utensils. “They’ve been out and so they are dirty,” she informs me. She glares at me with one of those disapproving scowls as if to say that I’m the one who’s crazy.

I forgive her these limitations. Mom is what you call a neat freak. My therapist has urged me not to elaborate.

The good news is that I am making a few inroads with the recycling lectures.

“Now, listen carefully, Mom, when you use a glass jar, let’s say of spaghetti sauce, and you toss it into the trash, it goes into a landfill. Landfills are really full and bad for the planet. If you recycle it, someone can reuse the glass to make something consumers can use.”

For years, she has refused to buy these arguments from me, her youngest. But the other day, when I questioned her about trash disposal again on the phone, she checked in with my older sister who was sitting nearby.

“Do you recycle your trash?” she asked Deb, while I waited patiently for the survey results. “Yes, of course I do,” said my sister. She’s the oldest.

“Oh,” said mom, now seemingly convinced. “I’ll have to tell Mariano (her helper) to start separating the stuff.”

And to think, all it took was a family intervention.

Main image: Visual Panic

Other images: Luanne Bradley

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