Project #1: Save Your Trash - An Introduction to Garbology

As a member of the consumerist society that we as Americans live in today, it is almost impossible to make it through a day without producing one form or another of trash.  A few weeks of studying trash have opened my eyes to the myriad of problems surrounding the issue, but one aspect stands out in particular, and that is the lack of education and awareness regarding the amount of trash that people individually produce and the impact it has on various earth systems. Waste is a part of everyday life; one that many people conveniently forget about as soon as they haul their trashcan out to the curb. Because trash reflects the type and amount of goods that one consumes on a day-to-day basis, it can be used to examine the different aspects of an individual’s life. Charged with this task, that is, cataloging my trash production and analyzing it, I began my journey into the newly discovered (for me, at least) discipline of garbology.

After cataloging the trash I personally create I have made some startling observations. As a result of studying trash for the last month I’ve attempted to lessen the amount of consumer goods with large amounts of packaging that I purchase. This has also encouraged me to be more conscious of my personal waste creation and made me more aware of where trash is going. Recording the trash I create for only a few days made me come to the realization that this idea of a disposable culture is deeply ingrained in American culture, and few realize the dangerous implications of our carefree ways. The discovery of this deep-seated ignorance toward our wasteful lifestyle reminded me of a quote from a reading from Waste and Want: A Social History of Trash by Susan Strasser, which illustrates how the transition to a manufacturing-based society created new kinds of trash that the average person didn’t even consider.

“Used lightbulbs did not simply burn up, like kerosene and its wicks or gas and its incandescent filament mantles. In the trash, they joined the other refuse of a developing ethos of disposability: chewing gum, cigarette butts, razor blades and paper products. (Strasser 173)”

A majority of the goods that many people, myself included, use on a regular basis exist only to be thrown away immediately after their purpose is served. A good example of this from my trash observations are bandages, and they come to mind because I’ve been giving myself a bunch of minor injuries recently. Because they are advertised as sterile it necessitates large amounts of extra waxed paper to cover up the adhesive. Before the era of mass-produced factory goods items such as bandages were made of cloth and simply washed and reused, “...and advertising copy ... compared Kotex with reusable fabrics (Strasser 164)”. The practice of using reusable fabrics for sterile wrappings creates no extraneous waste, yet due to the combination of multiple factors such as convenience and the entrance of germ theory into the public consciousness, many people made the switch and never looked back. Most manufactured bandages today create four pieces of trash, five if you include the bandage itself, which will be thrown away as soon as it’s purpose is served.

The practice of adding additional packaging is a commonplace occurrence in consumer goods in this day and age, but no entity is as grievous of an offender as the prepared food industry. Chip bags are filled halfway with air, breakfast pastries and granola bars are individually wrapped within boxes; the list goes on and on. The unnecessary packaging used for small amounts of food was the most significant contributor to my cumulative amount of waste, as I quickly discovered once I started keeping track of my trash. My trash doesn’t make my identity incredibly obvious, but allows one to make generalizations. Given the fact that I only have prepared food packaging in my trash, it’s readily apparent that I don’t have a kitchen and therefore am most likely to be a college student or someone in a temporary living situation. Other bits of specific information could be gathered from a few items in my waste stream, such as the size of pants that I wear through the jeans I discarded, but there isn’t much material to work with. The readings we did within the confines of the classroom, mainly on The Garbage Project, made made me aware of my own wasteful habits, and led me to consciously reduce the amount of waste that I create, which possibly skews the results of this study. If I had taken part in this at the beginning of the class, then I feel like there would have been more waste, and therefore more evidence of my identity.

Buying bulk food and having access to prepared meals are the most noticeable things I’ve done in regards to reducing the amount of packaging that I throw away or recycle. A notable example of this is a brand of cereal I recently began purchasing that comes in a bag like normal cereal, just full and without a cardboard box. This reduces the amount of packaging by 75% when compared to boxed cereals. This example is just a part of a movement by companies that produce consumer goods to promote more environmentally friendly methods of distribution.

However, seeing as all manufacturers are not concerned with where their product ends up after it has been purchased, ecoliteracy is an issue of utmost importance for children being raised in a consumerist society. Ecoliteracy should be fully established by the time a person has completed their required schooling, an ideal that doesn’t even come close to being met in the U.S. After taking multiple environment-focused courses, I have gained some semblance of ecoliteracy and a rough understanding of the effect human activity on the planet, which has encouraged me to consciously reduce the amount of waste I create as well as promote ecoliteracy, for I have experienced firsthand the change that being properly informed can make. If we continue at the current rate we’re going at now, the longest lasting testament to the activities of the human race will not be the pyramids at Giza or another monument of great cultural and historical significance, but simply trash. Lots and lots of trash

Works Cited

       Strasser, Susan. Waste and Want: A Social History of Trash. New York: Metropolitan, 1999. Print.

Trash Journal 

Monday 9/24

- (3) smoothie bottles

- (3) clorox wipes (cleaning supplies)

- (1) breakfast pastry box

- (2) napkins

Tuesday 9/25

- (2) bandages
- (3) Napkins

- food scraps (bad lettuce, pizza crust, etc.)

- (1) chip bag

- (1) noodles packaging (box, bowl, (3) plastic bags)

Wednesday 9/26

- (2) bandages

- (1) wrapper for breakfast pastry

- (2) gum wrapper / gum

Thursday 9/27

- (2) bandages

- food scraps (melted ice cream, bad fruit)

- (2) glass vials

- (3) gum wrapper/ gum

Friday 9/28

- (1) nametag

- (1) pair of jeans

- (1) lanyard tag

- (2) gum wrapper / gum

- (1) toothpick

Saturday 9/29

- (1) neosporin box

- (1) styrofoam plate

- (1) aluminum can

- (2) bandages

- (3) gum wrapper/ gum

Sunday 9/30

- (1) piece of foil

- (1) cereal bag

- (2) bandages

- (1) styrofoam cup

- (2) napkins