Want to watch the waste stream in real time?

[TheMadHun]

Researchers track 3,000 pieces of Seattle trash

"...Using an electronic tracking device about the size of a matchbook, MIT researchers are tagging about 3,000 pieces of Seattle trash to get people thinking about what they throw away and where it ends up.... Researchers are visiting the homes of hundreds of Seattle volunteers to affix electronic tags on about 10 to 15 pieces of their household trash, such as pizza boxes, Styrofoam cups, slippers and scrap metal. The volunteers will dispose of the item as they normally would.

The battery-operated smart tags rely on cell phone technology to send information back to MIT computers, allowing researchers — and the public — to monitor the trash in real-time as it moves through the waste stream to its final destination.

The public will be able to follow the trash migration at an exhibit that opens at Seattle's Central Library Sept. 18."

[astro]

Sounds neat but objectively IMO it's a huge waste of time and money. You're tagging household trash that's going to be taken to the landfill to be sorted and recycled or buried.

I'm not getting where the mystery or the scientific necessity is here. There's no new info you going to acquire that you couldn't get by riding a trash tuck and taking a tour of the waste disposal facilities. This is simply a PR stunt.

[Brainiac]

It's a fairly cheap PR stunt, and will probably bring a large number of children and their parents into the library, and teach them in a memorable way. I just wish they would have a few of the tags on things given to children in their lunch. A fair amount of lunch trash flies around my yard and gets into the gutters going into the bay, to gag birds and fish. That might be made into a lesson.

[picunurse]

Well, in Seattle, we are given three large containers for garbage, yard waste and recycles. They are picked up by different companies and go to different places.
Pizza boxes and food waste, as well as regular yard waste go into yard waste, scrap metal goes into recycles.
Styrofoam is being phased out here. I've seen only one place that still uses it in the last 6 months. They are using up present stock then converting to paper.
Slippers would go into the regular trash unless the individual took them to a thrift store.

So, astro the different bits would go to different places and be dealt with differently. Garbage* does, indeed, go to the transfer station then to the land fill. Recycles* go to the recycling center and yard waste* is made into compost and sold back to us.


*They may all go to the same transfer station, but then each moves on to secondary centers.

Seattle is one of the "greenest" cities in the country. We are subject to fines if the collectors find things inappropriately sorted. (we call them the garbage police.)

[TruCelt]

Originally Posted by TheMadHun

Researchers track 3,000 pieces of Seattle trash
. . . The volunteers will dispose of the item as they normally would.

Hmmnnn, entertaining, but color me cynical.

Like a single piece of tagged styrofoam will fail to end up in the recycle bin. Any bets how many of these folks "forget" to take the trash out on trash day this week? (I know I did this morning!)

[palindromemordnilap]

I've often wondered how much of the stuff I throw in the recycler actually gets recycled.