2024-08-20 02:05:16
Let’s imagine for a moment the garbage as a great symphony in which the musicians have been replaced by microbes, professional artists who play a special melody: that of decay. In this way, bacteria, fungi and other microorganisms become virtuoso performers of what can be called symphony number 7 or of rot.
And when we throw something in the trash we offer a delicious meal to a plethora of microorganisms, which release many chemical compounds that change, which are responsible for those characteristic smells.
A game of tongue steam
Among the main ‘notes’ of this fetid orchestra we find: hydrogen sulfide, fatty acids, amines and mercaptans. Hydrogen sulfide is produced when bacteria break down sulfur-containing proteins, such as those found in meat or eggs; Fatty acids are formed from the reduction of fats and amines from amino acids.
Hydrogen sulfide – a gas that causes the smell of soft eggs – causes an acrid and penetrating smell; Fatty acids give off a musty smell, and amines provide an ammoniacal and foul touch.
Thus, the composition of pollutant odors is not constant, but rather changes as the digestion process progresses. At first, sweet and fruity aromas prevail, representative of the fermentation of sugars, and as the days go by, more and more unpleasant ones.
Each food emits its own aroma and when combined with others creates a cacophonous symphony that reverberates in the air. Now, the forgotten banana, with its fermented flavor, mixes, for example, with the smell of rotten meat, and between the two they create a dissonance that is almost painful for our pituitary.
Why do those smells bother us so much?
The air in the garbage bag, dense and laden with humidity, promises to be more than just a breath and ends up filtering through the cracks of the bag and pressing our nostrils like an unwanted visitor. From there it travels to our brains and lodges in the folds of our memory with a furious persistence that wanders between nausea and vomiting.
In this way, bad smells become a kind of emergency code, which allows us to associate certain smells with danger. In this way, the smell of eating meat or dead animals is a sign that there is a dead body nearby, with what this means, since it can attract other animals and, in addition, increase the risk of suffering from infectious diseases.
In other ways the garbage bag is a small world, a microcosm where life is broken and transformed into something new, dark and unknown. It is more than a simple set of materials, it is a complex sensory experience that evokes a wide range of emotions and feelings. A reminder of our own mortality and the fragility of everything around us.
#garbage #bag #smell