Hello, I finally figured out how to post so I’m going to be spamming things into the categories to catch up. For conceptualizing waste, I look to my own room and think what would be considered dirty to others, versus for me it’s gold? The answer: taxidermy. I collect pelts, sealed specimens, bones, teeth, etc. All things I make sure they have died naturally so I am not disrespecting the body, and if they have died in a way, I don’t know how I will continue to treat them with respect. Most people look at taxidermy and dead things as a waste, meant to be left to be composed into the earth and never looked at again, some find it disturbing in general and think people like me are weird for collecting. In a span of a few years, I have collected various trinkets such as buffalo teeth earrings from an indigenous artist in Idaho and a matching necklace, a snapping turtle skull, a fisher cat pelt, a bat in resin, I believe a goat’s skull (not sure, face is a little busted, I got the fellow from an antique store), etc. I’ve been told that I collect trash and to leave bones and other gross things alone, but I don’t see these as trash, I see them as animals, and this is my way of ensuring at least a part of them knows that they are cared for. People aren’t judged when hunters keep prizes of their kills, so why am I judged for doing it in a more respectful manner? Sure, it takes up space in my room, sure I have a whole “bone shrine” at home, but there is a beauty to the bones, a reminder that life exists before and after we are gone.