Where is Away?

Plastic, plastic everywhere,
----but not a grain of sand.

I just read a remarkable essay regarding the toilet bowl of plastic in the northern Pacific and it made me think of several things all at once; from a line in "The Graduate," to having sand that's not sand- but bits of hard plastic chips on the beaches in Hawaii, to all the bags, wrap, bowls, and other items made of petro-chemicals in my house--all the plastics we use on a daily basis. Last year we switched from little sandwich bags to using sandwich sized plastic sandwich boxes. Last year I campaigned against some ignorant people on why plastic bottles of water wasn't a good idea for our town's 8th grade graduation reception (we had a new school, great water, and why buy water in plastic anyways?) (it fell on very deaf and ignorant ears, but I tried). So now I'm thinking I would really like to get some refrigerator bowls to replace the Rubbermaid & Tupperware ones I currently use.

I thought about my girlfriend Kathy and her mom hiking in Thompson, CT - and Kathy commenting about being able to figure out the habits of her fellow townspeople just by the trash she and her mom collected by the side of her road. They even found a plastic toilet seat thrown over the edge of the ravine. I called them "Garb-archaeologists."

I made a mental note to put glass bowls on my shopping list and to throw the plastic bowls away, but caught myself smirking inside my head about that old phrase "throw something away." Gotta change that way of thinking.

Where is "away," anyways?