6-69. Don't Waste Your Garbage

There once was a boy named Thomas who lived just down the street in the house with the red bricks. Thomas didn't care about the environment, and he never recycled his garbage.
     One day an old wizard smelled an awful stench while he was working in his basement. He walked upstairs and outside and kept following the scent until he found himself in front of Thomas' house. He stopped out front and looked at the garbage piled up on the curb. He shook his head with disgust and said, "Look at all this trash! Thomas must learn that he should not waste his garbage."
     The wizard pulled out his wand and put a spell on Thomas' house. Now, every time Thomas threw away good garbage, it would talk to him. The spell would not go away until Thomas stopped wasting his garbage.
     That night Thomas noticed a mistake after he printed his homework. Without thinking he threw the paper into the trash.
     "Hey! What are you doing?" said a voice.
     "Who said that?" Thomas asked.
     It was the paper! "You are wasting me! I am not garbage," it said.
     "Yes, you are!" Thomas pointed. "There is a mistake printed on you."
     "Look at me. I still have one blank side," said the paper.
     "What can I do with that?"
     "You could draw a picture. You could write a note. You could play a game. You could do your math homework."
     "Wow! I never thought about it before," said Thomas.
     "Well, you should start thinking about it more often. I am precious," the paper explained. "A tree had to die to make me. Don't waste a tree by throwing me away! You must learn to recycle."
     The next day Thomas went to the kitchen to make his lunch. He ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a glass of milk. Then he put the empty peanut butter jar into the garbage.
     "Excuse me! Take me out of here right now!" said the jar.
     "Why? You're garbage," said Thomas.
     "No, I am not! You can use me for something else."
     "Something else? Like what?"
     "I can hold your marbles. I can hold your pennies. I can hold your candy. I can hold many small treasures," the jar answered.
     Thomas' head was spinning with ideas. This was the strangest thing that had ever happened to him. Talking garbage! But he agreed that the jar was very useful, so he put it in a safe place.
     Later that day, Thomas ate some oranges and threw the orange peels into the trash can. It happened again.
     This time the peels started to talk. "Stop! We do not belong in here."
     "Why not? You're definitely garbage!" said Thomas. "There is no way I can reuse you. You would smell bad."
     "No, we are very special garbage. We go into the compost bin," said the peels.
     "What is a compost bin?" asked Thomas.
     "A compost bin is a special box where you put all your vegetable and fruit scraps. In the spring, you put us into your garden, and we help your flowers grow."
     Thomas did not understand why his garbage was talking all of a sudden, but he started to understand what it was saying. He took the orange peels out of the trash can and put them into the compost bin.
     The next morning, while Thomas was getting dressed, he accidentally ripped his shirt as he pulled it over his head. Since it was an old shirt, he took it off and threw it into the garbage.
     "Where am I going?" asked the shirt.
     "You are an old ripped shirt, so you are going into the garbage. I'm sorry, but there is nothing I can do with you," said Thomas.
     "You are wrong, Thomas! You can use me as a rag. I can wash the floor. I can clean your bike," explained the shirt.
     Thomas was amazed. It seemed that everything that used to be garbage still had a job to do─even orange peels and ripped clothes! He had a whole new understanding of his trash.
     Thomas learned a lot from the talking garbage. He did not want to cause environmental problems anymore. That afternoon he went around the house and looked in all of the garbage bins. He found everything that he could reuse and put it all in a special place with the rest of his treasures.
     The next week Thomas' garbage bag was very small. Even the garbage man was impressed when he came to pick it up. Thomas had saved all of the used paper, all of the empty bottles, and all of his old clothes. He had even made compost out of his fruits and vegetables! There was hardly anything to throw away.
     However, the garbage man was not the only person who was amazed by Thomas' new habit. The old wizard had also seen the small bag of garbage on the curb that day. During the night, when everyone was asleep, he walked by Thomas' house enjoying the fresh air. He smiled and laughed as he looked toward the house.
     "Ha-ha! Thomas, you have learned your lesson. You have learned to save your garbage, so I will remove the spell from your house."