In this chapter of Garbology Humes writes about a study that was made in Seattle 2009 by MIT scientists and Bruce Sterling. The study asked volunteers to put a tracking devise on a piece of trash of there choice like a Coffee cup or a an old shoe; Which is why the name of the chapter is titled "The Trash Trackers". What I liked about this study was the idea of knowing exactly where our trash goes and ends up at. "Innate intelligence would, in sterling's vision, allow us to direct all objects-specifically the objects we throw away-to the best and most efficient path for refuse, repurposing or recycling"(146). It's cool to think that knowing where our garbage goes can open the window to truly informing society what we need to do and about the importance of recycling in order to clean up our world.
The chapter also mentions that the scientist chose to conduct the experiment in Seattle because they are a "Green city, 50% of the people there recycle and the average U.S city recycles about 30%"(148). At the end of the study the volunteers were called back to see where there garbage ended up at. I was surprised to see that most of there trash ended up in other states than the one that they threw it away in. In some cases even further or just lost track as the devise attached to it must have been removed somehow. This would a good experiment for all of us to do in order to be aware of where exactly our trash goes and how it ends up in oceans, streets, and how it trashes our overall planet.
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