Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair

A primary factor that inhibits waste reduction efforts is the invisibility of our waste. Throughout history, from ancient Greece through early-20th-century America, the absence of modern waste collection and disposal systems ensured the waste people generated remained around them. People were conscious of their waste because no entity existed to retrieve it and haul it to a landfill. Waste remained in people’s homes and streets. Waring’s waste reduction efforts in New York City, then, proved to be both a lifesaving benefit and a society altering detriment. Waring’s municipal waste collection methods and “White Wings” street cleaners, replicated nationwide, removed waste from public view and enabled the invisibility of wastefulness. Waring’s efforts led to the modern landfill and recycling system that manages our waste and ensures public safety but also lets us pretend we don’t produce waste.

The invisibility of our waste removal chain clouds our knowledge of what happens to our waste after it is collected by a garbage truck. Unless exposed to the process, we have no knowledge of the long and environmentally harmful transit routes many items travel for recycling or the truckloads of trash that find their way into oceans daily. When people are aware of their wastefulness and its effects, most desire change.