Review of Garbology by Edward Humes Chapter 12

Now that we're coming to an end, Edward Humes gives us an overview of how a woman named Bea Johnson and her family had changed their way of living, meaning having a home with zero-waste. The Johnsons are living in an apartment where not everything fits, so they definitely had to get rid of some items.  She finds recycling to be a waste as well. The changes that the family has made includes shopping and storing food in mason jars, making a homemade multipurpose cleaner, shopping at thrift stores for clothing, using a handkerchief instead of paper tissues, etc., but most importantly, they chose not to buy anything that had/ made of paper or tissue. Overall, this had to be my favorite chapter because the Johnsons have proved the impossible. Despite the criticism she receives, she has changed the way how people think. I am for sure amazed by what she has done.  

Response to the article, "Incinerators"

In this article, we are presented with reasons why it's a bad idea to burn our waste. After reading more of the negative points of  incinerators, I am now more aware of what they can do. Once our waste is burned, it's discharge consists of toxic chemicals that then spreads in the atmosphere; the air we breathe (which the chemicals will enter into our bodies) and in our food chain. So forth, using an incinerator could waste our trash, meaning we could reuse, recycle, and compost our trash rather than having everything burned altogether. Incinerators can also affect global climate change, and are sited more in the poor and rural areas. Now, I agree that incinerators are bad, but hopefully we can find ways to improve them.

Review of Garbology by Edward Humes Chapter 11

In this chapter, Humes gives an overview of Portland, Oregon. Portland has been known as one of the greenest cities in America, in which the city came up with ideas in order to remain environmental friendly. For instance, transportation consisted more of bikes which led to more bike parking, and an aerial tramway. Also, fitness clubs would utilize exercise bicycles and their members to generate green power. Portland's trash is more than the average American's 7 pounds a day and is half more than an average Oregonian. In Metro Portland, about 59% of trash was recycled, composted, or burned for energy in 2010. Also in 2011, Portland leaders began debating about how should trash look like in 2020. Some ideas included composting plants, which can generate electricity through anaerobic digesters, and the methane can make electricity or vehicle fuel. Outside of the United States, Denmark also is considered a green city in which their main objective is dispose less and utilize some of the waste. An interesting part that Humes includes in this chapter, is Nickolas Themelis' claim, in order for us to be more like Portland and Denmark, it involves a change in culture, not by choice, but necessity. Themelis is absolutely right, and hopefully people can be more aware of what they are buying, meaning not throwing these items in a short period of time. I do believe in change and hopefully it will happen, but then again there are people that could careless. Let's just hope it's not to late.      

Review of Garbology by Edward Humes Chapter 10

In this chapter, Humes presents a vast amount of information about plastic. Plastics bags are a part of our trash epidemic. Humes presents an anecdote of Andy Keller whose first job was a software trader, but then changed to working with landscape. He wanted to get rid of plastic bags, so he decided to create a reusable bag in which was named ChicoBag. Keller had expanded his line by coming up with different styles for the bag and have them made of hemp and recycled polyethylene. What was interesting was the pricing for the bags; an original ChinoBag would cost six dollars in retail versus a ChinoBag that was made of 97% recycle materials, it would cost $9.60. Keller admits though, that these bags aren't made in the U.S. The manufacturing comes from Vietnam and China, and some detailing comes from the U.S. Despite the cost of the ChinoBag made of recycled materials, wouldn't be best to choose that over having 500 or more plastic bags made from fossil fuels being thrown away each year? The benefit of Keller's creation was to have kids understand what our trash epidemic is doing to our world and how they can make a difference. He even made a costume made out of plastic, in which he called himself Big Monster. Big Monster led to campaigning to end the use of plastic bags. Also, another interesting point that Humes mentioned was how Ireland banned the use of bags and they would charge people if they still wanted it. Another countries have also taken part and San Francisco. Overall, it fascinates me how an average person can make a difference and is educating our future to prevent plastic bag waste. Hopefully, these kids will appreciate the information and also try to make a difference.        

Review of Garbology by Edward Humes Chapter 9

In this chapter, Humes presents information in which trash is being utilized as art. Trash as art? Well, it may seem weird at first, but is quite interesting. In 1990, A.I.R. in Southside San Francisco was considered, "the dump with the art studios". For instance, Composer Nathaniel Stookey in his art, Junkestra, he conducted the San Francisco Symphony in which they played instruments made out of trash. Andrew Junge created a super-realistic life-sized Hummer made of plastic foam. In San Francisco's central Recycle Center, an architectural centerpiece created by Hector Dio Mendoza, was a seventeen foot tall tree constructed out of paper. Within each piece of art, each piece definitely symbolized not only how much waste we dispose, but not comprehending the creativity we could have with our trash. Another artist named Jo Hanson, suggested that the trash company sponsor artists in order to advance the arts and educate public waste. You would think at first it's easy for artists to go through piles of trash and pick up anything they wanted, but honestly it isn't true. Sometimes they see what people consider "trash", but are actually treasured items. Humes' purpose of this chapter, in my opinion, would be how to not necessarily make less waste, but see how our trash can be used to create things that would seem impossible. Now, I have more appreciation for art.          

Response to "The Incinerator as Eye Candy"

In an article, "The Incinerator as Eye Candy" by Elisabeth Rosenthal, Rosenthal gives an overview of how in Vienna waste-to-energy plants are created and recreated. These waste-to-energy plants contains filters and scrubbers that almost removes the pollution. The interesting part what Europe does, is how they designed them to be attractive rather than intimidate people who pass by. To answer Rosenthal's question in the end of the article, I don't mind having these "state-of-the-art plants. She definitely presents the positive views of these plants in which they create heat and electricity for the homes, which is great. As long as these plants are not harming my family, friend, and the environment, then why not?  

Review of Garbology by Edward Humes Chapter 8

In this chapter, Edward Humes presents a vast amount of information based on an archaeologist named Bill Rathje and how he became the founder of the Garbage Project. In the beginning of the chapter, he mentions a bucket auger, which is utilized to dig out and retract anything within 100 ft down. For instance, it is utilized to retract trash within the landfills. The Garbage Project began in the early 1970s at University of Arizona, where two students came up with the idea of making comparisons of two families to another set of two families(poor) in the way they dispose trash. An interesting claim that Humes mentions,caught my attention: "What we say about ourselves, observes Rathje, is never as honest or as revealing as what we throw away." (page 161). I found Humes' claim to be true in which one person could say he/she is recycling, but what about the other ways we need to dispose trash? Within the project, there has been research that discover a lot of food waste. Some items we think are biodegradable, which is true, but there are many food items that still left behind. Also, many of us tend to purchase items in the grocery store, for instance meat, because we feel it's a necessity to have food stocked up in our refrigerators. Turns out, that the meat ends up in the trash because of bad cooking or pass the expiration date. It's just sad to think that there are many people all over the world that are starving, yet we throw away mass amounts of leftover food. Another interesting fact is how soldiers in World War II, that knew about marketing, analyzed their trash (mainly food) and managed to save 2.5 million pounds of wasted food.
Furthermore, Rathje also believes that the day after a toxic is collected,  the regular trash stream had twice as much hazardous waste. Rathje presents both the positive and negative outcomes of it: goods news it just sits there in the landfills, but the bad news is contamination and there's so much of it. He also believed that if we were given a larger trash can, the more we will waste (Parkinson's Law of Garbage). What I found interesting is how the disposal of trash is affected by our behaviors, which maybe the reason. The interesting part of this project was how they focused on the gender, age, income, etc. which affects what we dispose. Ratje utilized pre-classic era, Classic Period, and Classic Maya as a way to express distinction between waste and wastefulness. Although the project did not reach it's full potential, one of Ratje's students, Sheli Smith, has helped our younger generation realize how much we dispose and how we can control it. Now, children are becoming more involved and comprehend America's trash epidemic because of archaeologist Bill Rathje, there maybe a chance that the next generation could make a change.            

Response to the Video "The Story of Electronics (2010)"

In this video, Annie Leonard gives an overview of our disposed trash again, but this time relating to the disposal of any electronics. Leonard claims that the electronics we consume are "designed for the dump", in which this what the companies that create our electronic devices are targeting at. In the previous video, "The Story of Stuff", that Gold Arrow is being presented as "designed for the dump" is within extraction, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal. Leonard has presented a better understanding on the ways we dispose easily. For instance, it can cost so much to get an electronic fixed, so people end up buying a new electronic, which could cost a few less dollars than repairing it. In the 1960s, Gordon Moore predicted that electronics designs could double the processor speed in eighteen months. The companies' thought was that they could continue to sell more electronics within eighteen months. That meant consumption, disposal, and repeat. When we dispose our electronics they end up in the landfills or become "recycled", meaning they end up traveling to other countries. Our electronics are made up of many hazardous chemicals and all of us are affected by them. Hopefully, the companies could come up with more green/ friendly for the environment electronics. Also, may we not be limited to certain designs just because we want to make these changes.This video definitely changed my perspective on the ways we dispose our electronics.    

The Word-Picture

The smell is completely odorless. When it is in your hand, it may feel warm such as clothes from the dryer. Sometimes it feels cool like the weather. It’s texture is smooth as a baby’s bottom, but can be rough as a rock. It portrays simplicity within it's colors. The sight of it may make you want to jump up and down in joyfulness, or make you want to cry. It may be seen more than once within a lifetime. You can hear it being teared from the treasury. The agonizing sound of it as it is being destroyed in someone’s hand; the never ending crumbling and being thrown across the room. Sometimes it is left in a certain area until it piles up.  

Review of Garbology by Edward Humes Chapter 7

So far within the book, we know where our disposed trash ends up going either in the landfills such as Puente Hills, or the ocean. Have you ever imagined where our disposed or neglected trash ends up going? Well in this chapter, Edward gives an overview of smart trash. Science fiction novelist and futurist Bruce Sterling dubbed manufactured objects as "blogjects" or spimes". The SENSEable City Lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology was inspired by Sterling's view that they decided to create smart trash. So forth, Humes explains how Tim Pritchard, a Seattle resident, learns about Trash Track and becomes part of the research. What I found interesting is how Seattle invests in sustainability and recycles thirty percent of its waste. Also, residents are charged by the amount of trash they produce. The trash tracking led to three parts: high-tech, low-tech, and subterfuge. The interesting part of utilizing these electronic devices was to attach them to a certain piece of trash and will track down where the trash ends up going. Many volunteers were surprised by the results, hopefully we can come to a better understanding that our trash travels more than we do.

Response to "19-Year-Old Develops Ocean Cleanup Array That Could Remove 7,250,000 Tons Of Plastic From the World's Oceans"

Well as you can read the title above, that is what is being presented in this article. This article definitely caught my attention, in which I cannot believe that someone almost the same age as me could discover a solution for a complex situation. Boyan Slat plans to create an Ocean Cleanup Array which is a device that will be utilized as a giant funnel in the Garbage Patch. The function of the device will separate the plastic from the plankton and will end up recycling the plastic. Slat's plan has led to many solutions such as saving aquatic animals, reducing pollutants, clean-up costs, lost tourism, and damage to marine vessels. It is estimated that the clean-up will take up to five years. I think the most interesting part of this article now matter what age you are you can make a difference, and make others believe that the "impossible", is possible.  

Response to "Scripps Study Shows Plastic in Pacific Garbage Patch Has Increased 100-Fold"

This article gives an overview in which Scripps Institution of Oceanography has released a study that plastic  found in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, has increased a hundred times than it did forty years ago. For the majority part of this article, it mentions the same information Edward Humes presents in Garbology. I find it to be ridiculous with how we have to deal with these small bits of plastic.When we try to find a solution for this mess, this continues to be more of a difficult situation. It is hard to imagine how insects within the ocean, such as sea skaters, end up laying their eggs on these small bits of plastic, I find it to be hurting them. It's bad enough knowing because of the way we dispose trash, not only are we harming ourselves, but also animals. I am hoping that people will start to understand that when eat a certain type of fish, to think about how much trash did that fish eat and how becomes a part of us.      

Review of Garbology by Edward Humes Chapter 6

In this chapter, Edward Humes continues on giving an overview of plastic polluting our ocean and mentions Miriam Goldstein who is also a scientist like Mary Crowley. Goldstein has taken part in sea voyages, collecting data for Project Kaisei and considers herself as an "accomplished barfer". In one of Goldstein's voyages, her and her colleagues were surprised when the found small plastic bits were spread out across 1,200 miles of ocean. Another shocking discovering was when jellyfish and sea slugs were captured in the net, those plastic bits could be seen in their bodies. What I found interesting is that, "Half the oxygen we breathe emanates from microscopic phytoplankton sloshing around the surface of the ocean." (Humes 131). What is even harder to blieve that it is worse than deforestation. I always use to think when I saw a dirty plastic that maybe it rolled and landed in dirt, dirty water, etc., but turns out plastic is a magnet; it can soak up chemicals, pesticides,etc. A term that I found interesting was bio-magnification, in which a fish will eat tiny fishes that consumed POPS-infused plastic, and then is equal to one hundred contaminated pieces of plastic. It is crazy enough to know how much plastic is being polluted in our ocean, let alone that the majority of items we have in our homes are made up of plastic. As Humes mentioned, plastic is man-made, so should we stop creating plastic, or is it too late?