An organization I spoke for sent me an award.

While I’m honored at the sentiment and appreciate their doing something for me, the problem of the award and its packaging clogging landfills outweighs the value of the physical award.

I would have preferred a donation to a cause we both agree with.

Watch my video of my year’s worth of garbage (with shirt or without, to illustrate the similarity of putting garbage in the environment to putting it on our bodies) and you’ll see the packaging for this thing is about a month of my garbage.

Mindlessly sending stuff like that is how scenes like the picture below happen:

How else do you think garbage happens? Other people but not you?

Anyway, here’s a picture of the award. I blurred the organization that sent it since I don’t blame them. Our culture still values material stuff over sincere expressions of gratitude without filling landfills. I appreciate and value that sentiment.

I asked them if they would take it back (clarifying how much the sentiment meant to me). They said they wouldn’t so they don’t want it either. The only other place I can send it is the return address—that is, the manufacturer. I’ll send it to them so they can reuse the packaging at least, and maybe reuse the award.

Again, I value the sentiment, but it appears nobody values the physical award.

It speaks to our times. We fill our land, air, and water with garbage nobody wants, creating it so thoughtlessly.

Why do we make things that nobody wants. How much garbage do we need to create before we stop making it?

• ← 40 beats per minute resting heart rate
• Hear me on Kevin Kruse’s Leadx podcast: “This Leader Only Produces One Bag Of Trash Per Year” →