Lying in our own waste

Got sent this photographic project today and I thought is was worth sharing.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2014/07/08/gregg_segal_photographs_people_with_a_week_s_worth_of_their_trash_in_his.html

Partially because I have a thing about packaging. I hate it. Empty bags and paper and bits of cardboard and stuff sends me into a slight insane OCD Ick factor tantie. And worst of all. Soda bottles or drink cans. Literally makes my skin crawl.

but, my weirdness aside, the commentary it makes I think its one worth thinking about. Not only how much waste we create, but how "disposable" our mindset towards our stuff has become.

Ick, indeed. The only reason I had insight to the reality of my own waste creation is because raccoons love digging through our trash at night. And they're not very tidy, either. I would be on my way out to work to find that the trash I had put out the night prior had been rummaged through by these little critters. I think the only way to reduce that amount of waste is to grow our own food, aside from having to go to market for meat and cooking products. I did see some cleaning product bottles and such in those photographs. I wonder what to do about those.

Composting is where its at...
Save lots of money, and help the environment... A 2 winner!
Trash disposal sites are growing and growing, building more and more waste, and half the time I see people throw recyclebles away, makes me disheartened so much negligence...
My family of 3 with a cat make about 20 pounds of trash a month...
Where we live waste disposal is communal, so we all pay the same, no matter how much trash we make... Almost got evicted because we objected to this after we signed a contract. I see people make as much waste in a week, that we make in a month... Trash rates keep rising because people do not understand disposing properly....
I am about to start a neighborhood watch on trash, I tell yous what...
The lack of conscious effort really disapoints me as a being...
I can only police myself...

Garbage is so bad, villages are actually made right on top of them... :sick:

Llama Su wrote: I can only police myself...

I think that's the important point. You can tell people what they should and shouldn't do with regards to sustainability, but ultimately unless they make themselves do it, they won't. There's too much of a 'someone else will deal with it' mentality that people forget that we're all responsible. Perhaps if we were living in the waste there might be a change in behaviour.

I like how the artist put something special just below the upper left hand corner in the trash. Go ahead, look again. Start at the left corner and scan down the side. There you will see it. The most horrible piece of trash/waste in the whole mess the familly is laying in... a piece of romain lettuce. :ohmy:

hahahahhahaahahha :woohoo: :silly:

See... that's why I don't eat salad. Even artist agree it belongs in the trash. :pinch: hahahhahahhaha :woohoo:

Okay, I'll stop being silly now.


PS. Okay, one more thing... both of the males in the picture are wearing miss-matched foot wear. One is wearing differetn socks and the other is wearing differetn shoes. I think the artist was a female and this is her subtle hint of the common stigma that males have no sense of style or fashion...
I know that I don't, but come on... all guys!??! hahahhahhahahha :woohoo:

Fascinating ... :pinch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGCfiv1xtoU

I find cardboard and paper packaging more than acceptable: it's renewable after all. Over here we seem to mostly use plastic, and that's just tragic. I just don't understand why shops don't use paper bags like they do in america?

Here in America I have noticed at some places they will charge for a paper bag.

The problem with packaging, because most is recyclable anyhow, is that most of the time, it is not recycled, people look over it too often...
Styrofoam is the worst kind of packaging though no doubt, because they "recycle" it into another toxic substance, which will not go away for years... and years... and years.... Either way the Styrofoam product will be around much longer than I am... :sick:

Llama Su wrote: Here in America I have noticed at some places they will charge for a paper bag.

Yep. In Seattle they charge for bags. You get used to bringing your own pretty quickly, though.

We also recycle everything (cardboard, paper, glass, plastic, tin, metal, etc.) and composting is encouraged.

It's not a perfect city, by any means, but we seem to get a few things right every now and then.

Don't confuse "recycling" with putting things in a "special" bin. Plastics can be reused to a certain extent, so can metals. But once you've used that high-grade german steel, the only thing it can be recycled into is that low grade chinese steel. It's made of the same stuff, but in reality you know which of them you want your car to be made with.
Heck, even to make radiation-sensitive equipment, we have to dig up sunk ww1 german warships because their steel being from the pre-nuclear era, is the only one to still have low background radiation.