You guys ever hear of the University of Arizona’s Garbage Project? They’ve had an ongoing project (I think for about ten years) studying garbage from bith the past and present. There’s a book about it: Rubbish!: The Archaeology of Garbage by William L. Rathje. I recommend it highly as a both fascinating and entertaining read.
What they found is that people consistently lie about how much food their family consumes (they exaggerate the amount). They also found that scarcity of an item increases waste of that item (such as if beef prices skyrocket, they find more beef waste in the trash because people stock up, store it incorrectly, and prepare unfamiliar cuts incorrectly.) They also found that recycling drives for chemicals actually increases the amount of chemicals going to the dump. (They speculate that the ad campaigns make people aware of the leftover paint and whatnot hanging around in their garages, and rather than take the time to recycle it, they just toss it out.)
Their findings were an interesting study of purchasing habits between socio-economic groups. For exmple, lower-class families buy more educational toys than wealthy families, and poor families tend to buy products in smaller amounts (convenience size rather than economy size.)
It also debunked some myths that I believed about the breakdown of garbage over time. They discovered deposits from the 1930s and 1940s in nearly pristine condition. In the anaerobic environment of a dump, nothing buried seems to decay. Banana peels from the Depression were still identifiable as such, and newspapers were still readable.
I highly recommend the book. It was very interesting.
What do you do with these fish, feed them to the cats?
Nobody eat Lake Michigan fish do they?
Just Kidding, you’re probably far enough north to escape the Jones Island problems.
I hope.
Going through my office trash, you would find about 3 boxes worth of used Kleenex, an empty bag, and an empty container of orange juice.
Conclusion: I have a cold, and I ate my lunch.
Home garbage: Lots of junk mail, cat litter, orange juice bottles, empty soup cans, wrapping paper, Amazon.com boxes, wine bottles, lots of used Kleenex.
Conclusions: I have a cold, we get too much junk mail, we have cats, and somebody just had a birthday. Oh, and did I mention I have a cold? 'Cause I do.
Alternate conclusion: The cats got drunk and threw a party.
As do I, as do my neighbors across the alley and the house two doors down across the alley. The sound of beer bottles being thrown in the garbage is a familiar sound around here.
Also, that I tear out all the advertising pages from magazines before I read them. Saves frustration and weight.
I only buy beef from the butcher or when it’s been marked down. Organic beef, because I can get it cheap.
That I only buy fresh vegetables this time of year - praise the farmers market.
Not much else, I’m single, I cook from scratch and I conciously don’t buy a lot of stuff.
