The other day when watching the Antique Roadshow I started to ponder about the antiquities of tomorrow. Nothing made by human hands, produced in sweatshops, synthesised from chemicals and burning oil, ending up in landfills leaking microplastics into lakes and seas.
The best we can do is recycle waste, producing new products that soon will be turned to waste again.
What is made, produced, procured today to last a lifetime, to be treasured, loved, passed on? What will be seen as treasures hundred years from now? How much more can our planet carry when growth is greed and greed is good?
captured in the breeze
a disoriented plastic bag
settles in the lake
Today we write about the earth with Frank at dVerse Haibun Monday celebrating earth day which is today.
April 22, 2024
Björn Rudbergs writings 
I think the haiku makes this more hard-hitting. Perfect.
Thank you… a normal scene from a shore
At first glance, it looks like a beautiful image then on closer inspection I realised how awful it actually was (and how awful it would smell too!) I wish more news was shared with the positive stories happening but there never is. For example, how there’s a new initiative in Kenya to recycle plastic into bricks to build houses.
There are positive stories, but more like band-aid to mend broken bones
The haiku brings the point home harshly, as it should. We’ve created one hot mess!
Pat
We have… and we still do.
An interesting thought, Björn, about the antiquities of tomorrow, and a worrying one. Recycling is something that has been done over the centuries through darning, repainting, unravelling knitwear and using the wool for something else. I inherited furniture from my grandmother which I still have and use. I love the image of a ‘disoriented plastic bag’ but not when it settles in a lake.
I think that what you describe is reuse or repurpose, recycling usually is reprocessing the material itself…
That too!
Good observations, Bjorn. I wonder what will happen to all the dead lithium batteries when everyone is driving electric cars. Everything we create becomes a problem in the end it seems. I believe population explosion is our worst enemy!
We do have a lot of problems, as for batteries they will be repurposed or recycled. We simply have to since they contain too much value to be put on a landfill… that will alas also cost energy. Population explosion is less of a problem than I used to think… a large part of the countries in the world will actually see population decrease due to lower birthrates….
Too much plastic waste is not good, neither is greed…we have to change our ways!
Disturbing but well put, Bjorn. Too much plastic and greed in the world…can we change?
Indeed we all have to change. Thrive with less.
Contentment, not materialism.
Bravo for this haibun. Happy Earth Day
much♡love
Thank you, and happy earth day back.
Fine piece here Björn, insightful. Nice bit of AI also. Ironic isn’t it — at a time when life was shorter , the desire was to create things that would last longer. 😐✌🏼Happy Earth Day! 🌱
Once we thought about every product for life (and beyond)… yes they were a lot more expensive, but you mended, changed, just to keep them.
A heartrending, yet prophetic, haibun, Bjorn!
Thank you
Wow! This is so powerful, Björn. 👏❤️
I filmed a plastic bag flying about in the wind… Your poem reawakens my fascinated horror of it.
They may even look beautiful… murderous plastic.
It looks great in slow-motion. A plastic bag dance in the wind. 💨
So well written Björn.
Thank you… I’m sorry it had to be written.
Yes anyone who is concerned about the future of our home is sorry about where we are today.
The haiku at the end of your haibun captures that feeling of despair that threatens to overwhelm me when I consider what the antiques of the future might be. Your writing in this haibun is very moving.
Fine work, BR. Thanks. I’ve been thinking it’s already too late for a while now
Such a good question…
~David
You are ending haiku really packed a punch. It is a hard reality to live with.
A vital question – what is made that will last, and the whole question of plastic, grrr! I love the questions – they hit the mark and stir the soul.