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is, of course, not really necessary
to make an unpleasant and possi–
bly hazardous trip to the local
dump or landfill to make such
inquir ies. One can accomplish the
same objective closer lo home.
1n fact,
at home!
You
can become a household
archaeologist and "excavate' '
your own trashcans. What you
discover may surprise you!
1 Dig At Home
The aulhor recenlly conducted an
..excavation' ' of his own kitchen
waste basket. The findings were
enlightening.
A trash can is, in cssence. a
miniature
te/l.
"Tell" is an
archaeological term used to desig–
nate a raised mound composed of
the remains of successive settle–
ments, marking the site of an
ancient town .
In early times, when a village
or town was destroyed by man–
made or natural causes, the rub–
blc and debris was simply leveled
off and new buildings erected on
top. This procedure wa" repeated
many t imes through history ,
creating a multileveled mound of
waste and debris. t\rchaeologists
dig down through these various
levels, carefully analyzing th e
remains in each one.
In like manner, household gar–
bagc forms levels in the trash can.
One !ayer of garbage is com–
pacted down onto the !ayer below
it. The older garbage is on the
bottom; the more reccn t garbagc
is nearer thc top. An excavation
of your own trash can would thus
yield a record of the past few days
of your household history.
lnto the Unknown
No one likes lo think about gar–
bage. Most of us pay little atten–
tion to our trash. We automati–
cally toss waste and debris into
the can without giving it a second
thought.
To most of us, therefore, the
diversity of the contents of our
trash cans wou ld probably come
as a shock and a surprise.
In lieu of the final "field
report" on my own household
..dig," a partial list of "finds" fol–
lows here:
6
• 5 chicken bones
• 2 used envelopes
• 1 empty soft drink can
• shells of four eggs
• 2 wi lted lettuce leaves
• orange peels
• 2 apple cores
• 1 broken drinking glass
• l used light bulb
• 4 used paper towels
• assorted pieces of junk mail
• 1 cardboard egg carton
• 3 plastic bags (from super–
market)
• 1 empty laundry detergent
box
• 1 toothpaste box
• numerous scraps of cello-
phane wrappi ng
• 1 empty salad oil bottle
• 2 disposable paper cups
• 2 used tea bags
• 1 candy bar wrapper
• 1 soup can
• newspaper classi fied ads
• 1 eight-inch piece of string
• coffee grounds
• l used scouring pad
Your own "excavation" woula
probably produce similar "finds."
with some variations depending
on your personal life-style, buy–
ing habits and dietary inclina–
tions.
T he point of this exercise is
simply to demonstrate that few of
us are really aware of how we live
because we are not aware of what
we are throwing away.
Most of us think of garbage
only when it begins to accumulate
and needs to be taken out. Once
the sanitat ion worker removes it
from the premiscs, it is of no fur–
ther concern to us. "Out of sight,
out of mind," as the saying goes.
Yet sorting through you r gar–
bage can make you more aware of
what you buy, what you throw
away-and what you
waste!
Millions of To n s
What is this thing called t rash?
Household trash and garbage
consists primarily of uneaten food
and other organic materials (such as
chicken bones and orange peels),
broken items and things we no Jon–
ger want, packaging (beer and soda
cans, baby foodjars, tin cans, boxes,
cellophane) and paper products
(paper towels, paper napkins, paper
plates, paper cups).
Beyond the home, trash a nd
garbage includes industr ial de–
bris, agricultura! wastes, con–
struc tion remains and debris,
junked machinery, automobile
hulks, old tires and so on.
No society in all of history has
produced as much garbage as
modern Western society- a nd
most g laringly the United States!
In fact , the United States
throws
away
more than many other
societies
produce!
In California's Los Angeles
County alone, some
70 mil/ion
pounds
of sol id w.aste is produced
each da
y- sorne 1O pounds per
person! Statistics vary widely, but
it can be safely said that Ameri –
cans throw away
hundreds of
millions of tons
of garbage every
year! According to EEC figures.
European households throw away
90 m;//ion tons
ot' wastc every
year, and the amount is growing.
Where Does l t All Go?
During the M iddle Ages. people
simply hurled their garbage from
upper-story windows into the
streets, and Jet it wash down the
gutters at the whims of th e
rains.
Today. in the Western world,
more than 95 percent of our sol id
waste is disposed of in onc of
three ways: in open dumps, in
sanitary landfills or by burning in
incinerators.
The open dump has been with
us for centuries. In rural areas it
is still the norm. Its well-known
drawbacks are legion. l t is a
breeding place for rats, Oies and
ot her insects and vermin.
lt
stinks.
lt
is an eyesore. lt is a fire
and health hazard.
Tt
pollutes
streams and ground water.
The sanitary landfill is simply
an open dump in an arroyo,
canyon, pit or valley covered over
by a thin !ayer of dirt after each
day's dumping. Trash is thus
sandwiched between Iayers of
earth fill. Though landfills avoid
some of thc problems of open
dumps, they st ill often pose seri–
ous water pollution problems and
generate offensive odors.
The PLAIN TRUTH