Detritus One Womans Trash... A catalogue of waste
By Emily Gauger
Detritus One Womans Trash...
Designer: Emily Gauger A Note on the Type: This publication uses the typefaces Frontage and Lato. Frontage is a san serif, all capital, outlined display font. Lato is a san serif typeface. A paired the two together to balance the publication out. The fact that they are both san serif keeps it cohesive and not too loud visually. I wanted to introduce an aspect of fun with Frontage while also keeping it simple and classic through the use of Lato.
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Paper Products
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Plastics
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Food Waste
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Other
A note from the artist Detritus is a catalogue following the collection of garbage. Over the course of a week, I have collected as much of my trash as possible and photographed it. In doing so, this trash wasn’t simply just trash, it became a reflection. A sort of physical diary if you will. Through looking at my garbage and the products that are put to waste, I can see habits in myself, things that I like to eat, what I use on the daily, how much I actually waste in a day, etc. This project has allowed me to take the time to analyze and value the things I throw away.I realized how many napkins I use and then toss in the garbage can, and if I use this many, then multiply it by 7 billion. I realized how much I wasted unnecessarily and it got me to think about different ways I can reduce the amount of waste that I produce in a day. It got me to look at my trash as art and evaluate my lifestyle habits.
Paper Products
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Straw wrappers These little devils arrive by to-go cup straws. If you ask me it’s a waste of paper to wrap all of these straws in paper when they could just be in a dispenser. But then again, you can’t really hand a customer an unwrapped straw through a drivethrough window, there would be some sanitation issues there. So in the end, I support them solely to be used at drive-through’s.
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To-go cups The only way to get that delicious drink to go. If you’re taking it from a restaurant or fast food joint, this is your only option. There isn’t really a good alternative to these. But just be a good person and make sure they make it to the recycle bin after you are through with them.
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Receipts Not many people nowadays use their receipts. I know my dad saves all of his to balance his checkbook, but I just throw them away. Some places are making an option to not have a receipt or to email you your receipt in an effort to save paper.
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things found in a bathroom Prescription bag and Q-tips. All found in my bathroom. The bag is what the pharmacy gives me my medicine in. And if you think about how many people pick up a prescription everyday, thats a whole lot of paper being wasted. And then Q-tips. I use them everyday to wipe the mascara mistakes off of my eyes. If you’ve ever tried unwrapping one, you know that all the are is just a piece of paper rolled tightly to form a stick, much like a lolipop stick .
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Napkins & Napkins These little babies are used to wipe the shit and grime off of my face. What a helpful little tool they are. Without them, my clothes would be covered in stains and last weeks dinner, As they are used and crumpled, they become a unique snowflake rather than the straight forward white folded cloth.
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Wow. Even more napkins It’s the same story as before. The keep the mess off my hands and face! This gnarly one on the bottom was used while eating a hefty burger loaded with mac and cheese. The foil from that burger can be seen in the ‘Other’ section.
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Evolution Of The Napkin Melanie Magdalena 18/10/2013
Who hasn't used a napkin? Everyone uses SOMETHING to clean him or her hands during and/or after a meal. A napkin is a piece of cloth for wiping the mouth and fingers, usually a small square piece of cloth or tissue paper used at meals. Napkins are essential today in dining around the world; however, they were not always available. Throughout history napkins have evolved to meet peoples' needs. Beginning with a lump of dough, napkins slowly evolved into new forms. In ancient Greece, Spartans used lumps of dough to wipe their hands at the dinner table. In Rome, two types of cloth napkins began to surface. The first napkin was called a sudaria, a pocket-sized handkerchief used for blotting the brow. The second, called a maapae, was a large cloth used to cover the surface of where the individuals eating were seated. They were also used to wipe mouths and for wrapping up leftover food to take home. Then suddenly during the Middle Ages, cloth napkins vanished and anything and everything was used for cleaning mouths and fingertips alike. During the Middle Ages, cleanliness of ropes was very important to society; therefore, hands were wiped on tablecloths. The tablecloth evolved with the custom transforming into a three-cloth spread over the table approximately 4-6 feet long and 5 feet wide. The first cloth, the couch, was laid lengthwise in front of the master's place. The second cloth, the surnappe, was a towel laid over the couch indicating the seat of an honored guest. Finally, the third cloth was a communal napkin hung from the edge of the table. With time, the basin with water for hand washing appeared and a servant would drape a cloth over his arm to provide a place to dry wet hands throughout the meal.
In the 16th Century, napkins were accepted as a dining refinement. Sizes of napkins varied depending on the event. Moving into the 17th Century, the standard napkin was 35 inches wide and 45 inches long. The napkin size was reduced in the 18th Century after the fork was accepted by all classes of society. At this time, the napkin was 30 inches by 36 inches in size. Around 1740, manufacturers began making matching tablecloth and napkin sets. Today, the napkin is made in a variety of sizes and with many materials to meet every entertainment need: large for multi-course meals, medium for simple menus, and small for afternoon tea and cocktails. The transition from cloth to paper napkins began in 1887, when John Dickinson used paper napkins at a company party in the United States. This change remained unformalized until 1931 when Scott Paper added them to the American market. Paper napkins are much more accessible than cloth napkins but there is a lot of controversy. Napkins have become essential for dining and are used by almost everyone. Starting with the Greeks with dough, moving to Rome with the first cloth napkins, and evolving from tablecloths to personal napkins that are nowadays even from recyclable material is the evolution of the napkin. Napkins are essential today in dining around the world; however, they were not always available so throughout history, napkins have evolved to suit people accordingly. Different sizes of napkins are used in different types of meals, and different materials are used to make them. They have colors and some even have elaborate patterns and designs. Napkins are an art of their own class. They can each resemble whatever a dinner host has in mind and are the perfect final touch to make every table look magnificent.
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The benefits of paper napkins include: 01. They are convenient because they eliminate the need to wash napkins, and they guarantee the user they will have a clean napkin. 02. They are lightweight and easy to pack. 03. Thick paper napkins are easiest to fold. 04. They come in a wide variety of sizes, patterns, and styles.
And then there are disadvantages: 01. They consume natural resources and pollute landfills. 02. They are bleached with chlorine and may contain dioxins and other toxins. 03. They are thin, tear easily, may not absorb well, and may be abrasive to the skin. 04. Limiting the use of paper napkins minimizes environmental waste, and using napkins from recycled paper and/or cloth napkins.
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The green wristband This green little piece of paper got me into the student section of the latest home Husker game. They change the color of the wristband every week so that you can’t just give your old one to a friend and sneak them in. That’s pretty smart of them.
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Paper towels The alternative to napkins. The spill cleaners. The mess wipers. The plate coverer’s. The paper towel has multiple uses but I usually just use them as a napkin when I’m at my apartment. Thinking about it, paper towels aren’t a super necessary item. You either have napkins or paper towels, you don’t need both. And as for messes, well a rag and sponge can do that job and then be rinsed and washed afterwards so there is none of the waste.
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free panera During the month of October, I got one free bagel everyday with my moms MyPanera card. Thats pretty cool when you’re a broke college kid craving some sweet sweet breakfast. This bag carried my free cherry vanillla bagel and that napkin wiped the grime off my fingers.
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Coupon I got this coupon at the grocery store with my receipt. As you can see, I did not use it. It got thrown into the bottom of my purse ans crumpled and stained.
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Paper Plate + Ham shreds This plate held my sandwich while on a picnic. I tore some of the edges off of my ham because it was a bit crispy and I felt weird about it.
plastics
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The dreaded plastic water bottle The root of all evil. The plastic water bottle. I only use one of these when I absolutely have to. Whenever I use one I feel like I’m killing the other and all ocean animals at the same time. I see no point in using them when you can just grab a glass of water or a reusable water bottle. If we can stop using these little terrors so much, we could eliminate so much waste from our oceans. Rant over.
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The packed lunch essentials If you have to bring your lunch to school or work, these are probably pretty commonly seen in your lunch box. The sandwich bag. The keeper of everything Sandwiches, crackers, chips, grapes, cookies, almonds, you name it, These suckers can carry it. And of course a plastic fork. Sometimes when you’re having a picnic style meal its just easier to carry around one of these rather than a real, nice one. But, I usually just use real silverware and I save plastic bags that aren’t gross so I can reuse them later until they are worn down, that way I don’t use 50 in a week.
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Nose spray
My partner in crime come allergy season. I can’t handle not being abole to breath through a stuffy nose, so nose spray always comes to my rescue.
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Birth Control
These packs should be empty when being sent to the trash, but I messed it up and skipped some days and then gave up and started a new pack.
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The solo ‘solo’ cup Ah yes, the solo cup. Typically seen in red and scattered on the floor in the after math of a college party. But, mine has a different story. Mine is blue. A beautiful shade of blue. And it held wine, because I’m classy and I drink wine at home alone.
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Alternate uses to the plastic water bottle People around the world take used plastic water bottles to the next level by utilizing them in creative ways to avoid them going to the ocean or landfills
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Art
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sustainability
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Building
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Gatorade As stated above, I pretty much despise plastic bottles. But when it comes to gatorade and other drinks that have to come in one, I’m more okay with them. Its not like we have sinks with gatorade or juice flowing out of them so we can’t feel too bad recycling a plastic bottle from non-water products because honestly, we had no choice.
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Bathroom essentials
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Every bathroom has soap and deodorant in it. At least I hope so. The essential products to staying clean and smelling fresh. Then conditioner and facewash are definitely essentials in my bathroom. Without conditioner, a brush would not make it through my hair. And without facewash, my face would be a giant pimple.
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Greek yogurt Greek yogurt is definitely a sweet treat that I really enjoy. Especially these ones with the fruit in the bottom. I love when healthy tastes good. But, if you are so unlucky as to get a bite with no fruit with it, you’re in for a bitter surprise.
Food Waste
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Good ‘ol steak and potatos (feat. corn) Going home to my parents house on the weekend means I get good meals. I don’t get to make steak for myself everyday, in fact I’ve never mad e steak for myself. All the reason to go home more often.
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Ranch vs. Honey mustard
You know I originally got this ranch for my salad but every once in a while a chicken strip would sneak its way in here. Ranch is good on everything.
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who wore it best?
You know I dipped all my chicken strips in this sauce. I dipped them in the ranch a couple times, but honey mustard was definitely the MVP sauce of this meal.
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Ugly fruit could end world hunger new research says Half of all US food produce is thrown away
Suzanne Goldenberg July 13, 2016
Americans throw away almost as much food as they eat because of a “cult of perfection”, deepening hunger and poverty, and inflicting a heavy toll on the environment. Vast quantities of fresh produce grown in the US are left in the field to rot, fed to livestock or hauled directly from the field to landfill, because of unrealistic and unyielding cosmetic standards, according to official data and interviews with dozens of farmers, packers, truckers, researchers, campaigners and government officials. From the fields and orchards of California to the population centres of the east coast, farmers and others on the food distribution chain say high-value and nutritious food is being sacrificed to retailers’ demand for unattainable perfection. “It’s all about blemish-free produce,” says Jay Johnson, who ships fresh fruit and vegetables from North Carolina and central Florida. “What happens in our business today is that it is either perfect, or it gets rejected. It is perfect to them, or they turn it down. And then you are stuck.” Food waste is often described as a “farm-to-fork” problem. Produce is lost in fields, warehouses, packaging, distri-
bution, supermarkets, restaurants and fridges. By one government tally, about 60m tonnes of produce worth about $160bn (£119bn), is wasted by retailers and consumers every year - one third of all foodstuffs. But that is just a “downstream” measure. In more than two dozen interviews, farmers, packers, wholesalers, truckers, food academics and campaigners described the waste that occurs “upstream”: scarred vegetables regularly abandoned in the field to save the expense and labour involved in harvest. Or left to rot in a warehouse because of minor blemishes that do not necessarily affect freshness or quality. When added to the retail waste, it takes the amount of food lost close to half of all produce grown, experts say. “I would say at times there is 25% of the crop that is just thrown away or fed to cattle,” said Wayde Kirschenman, whose family has been growing potatoes and other vegetables near Bakersfield, California, since the 1930s. “Sometimes it can be worse.” “Sunburnt” or darker-hued cauliflow-
er was ploughed over in the field. Table grapes that did not conform to a wedge shape were dumped. Entire crates of precut orange wedges were directed to landfill. In June, Kirschenman wound up feeding a significant share of his watermelon crop to cows. Researchers acknowledge there is as yet no clear accounting of food loss in the US, although thinktanks such as the World Resources Institute are working towards a more accurate reckoning. Imperfect Produce, a subscription delivery service for “ugly” food in the San Francisco Bay area, estimates that about one-fifth of all fruit and vegetables are consigned to the dump because they do not conform to the industry standard of perfection. But farmers, including Kirschenman, put the rejection rate far higher, depending on cosmetic slights to the produce because of growing conditions and weather. That lost food is seen increasingly as a drag on household incomes – about $1,600 a year for a family of four – and a direct challenge to global efforts to fight hunger, poverty and climate change. Globally, about one-third of food is
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wasted: 1.6bn tonnes of produce a year, pound for a week and nobody has pulled producers and distributors claimed that with a value of about $1tn. If this wast- the trigger,” he said. And he was “expect- some retailing giants were still using their ed food were stacked in 20-cubic metre ing an additional 250,000lbs of squash,” power to reject produce on the basis of skips, it would fill 80m of them, enough to similarly marked, in his warehouse a fort- some ideal of perfection, and sometimes reach all the way to the moon, and encir- night later. because of market conditions. cle it once. Taking action to tackle this is “There is a lot of hunger and starvation The farmers and truckers interviewed not impossible, as countries like Denmark in the United States, so how come I hav- said they had seen their produce rejected have shown. en’t been able to find a home for this six- on flimsy grounds, but decided against The Obama administration and the cents-a-pound food yet?” Johnson asked. challenging the ruling with the US departUN have pledged to halve avoidable food Such frustrations occur regularly along ment of agriculture’s dispute mechanism waste by 2030. Food producers, retail the entirety of the US food production for fear of being boycotted by powerful chains and campaign groups such as the chain – and producers and distributors supermarket giants. They also asked that Natural Resources Defense Council have maintain that the standards are always their names not be used. also vowed to reduce food loss in the shifting. Bountiful harvests bring more “I can tell you for a fact that I have delivReFED initiative. exacting standards of perfection. Times ered products to supermarkets that was Food experts say there is growing of shortage may prove more forgiving. [sic] absolutely gorgeous and because awareness that governments cannot efRetail giants argue that they are operat- their sales were slow, the last two days fectively fight hunger, or climate change, ing in consumers’ best interests, accord- they didn’t take my product and they sent without reducing food waste. Food waste ing to food experts. “A lot of the waste is it back to me,” said the owner of a mid-size accounts for about 8% of global climate happening further up the food chain and east coast trucking company. pollution, more than India or Russia. often on behalf of consumers, based on “They will dig through 50 cases to find “There are a lot of people who are hun- the perception of what those consumers one bad head of lettuce and say: ‘I am gry and malnourished, not taking your let“The demand for ‘perfect’ fruit and including in the US. tuce when that lettuce veg means much is discarded, damaging My guess is probably would pass a USDA the climate and leaving people hungry” 5-10% of the populainspection.’ But as the tion are still hungry – they still do not have want,” said Roni Neff, the director of the farmer told you, there is nothing you can enough to eat,” said Shenggen Fan, the di- food system environmental sustainabil- do, because if you use the Paca [Perishrector general of the International Food ity and public health programme at the able Agricultural Commodities Act of Policy Research Institute in Washington. Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Fu- 1930] on them, they are never going to “That is why food waste, food loss matters ture in Baltimore. buy from you again. Are you going to jeopa great deal. People are still hungry.” “Fruit and vegetables are often culled ardise $5m in sales over an $8,000 load?” That is not counting the waste of water, out because they think nobody would buy He said he experienced such rejections, land and other resources, or the toll on them,” she said. known in the industry as kickbacks, “a the climate of producing food that ends But Roger Gordon, who founded the couple of times a month,” which he conup in landfill. Food Cowboy startup to rescue and re- sidered on the low side for the industry. Within the US, discarded food is the route rejected produce, believes that the But he said he was usually able to sell the biggest single component of landfill and waste is built into the economics of food produce to another buyer. incinerators, according to the Environ- production. Fresh produce accounts for The power of the retail chains creates mental Protection Agency. Food dumps 15% of supermarket profits, he argued. fear along the supply chain, from the famare a rising source of methane, a far more “If you and I reduced fresh produce ily farmer to the major producer. powerful greenhouse gas than carbon di- waste by 50% like [the US agriculture “These big growers do not want to piss oxide. But experts readily acknowledge secretary] Vilsack wants us to do, then su- off retailers. They don’t enforce Paca on that they are only beginning to come to permarkets would go from [a] 1.5% profit Safeway, Walmart or Costco,” said Ron grips with the scale of the problem. margin to 0.7%,” he said. “And if we were Clark, who spent more than 20 years The May harvest season in Flor- to lose 50% of consumer waste, then we working with farmers and food banks beida found Johnson with 11,000kg would lose about $250bn in economic ac- fore co-founding Imperfect Produce. (24,250lbs) of freshly harvested spaghet- tivity that would go away.” “They are just not going to call because ti squash in his cool box – perfect except Some supermarket chains and industry that will be the last order they will ever for brown scoring on the rind from high groups in the US are pioneering ugly pro- sell to them. That’s their fear. They are rewinds during a spring storm. duce sections and actively campaigning ally in a pickle.” “I’ve been offering it for six cents a to reduce such losses. But a number of
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Hey, Runza. Runza has the chicken strips that kicks the ass of all other chicken strips so you have to get them. But then I was like you know what, I should be healthy too. So I got it with a side salad doused in ranch and that whole idea of healthy went down the drain. But I mean I tried. I’m kinda sad looking back that I wasted this last strip.
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The paper plate fiasco Hot dogs on the grill. Kettle chips. Macaroni pie. Baked beans. Hell yeah. The wonders of a grilled out meal. I love the American back-yard barbecue food. It reminds me of summer and good times. We used paper plates out of convenience but, imagine if everyone used them for convenience. There would be so much unnecessary waste. Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. Don’t be lazy.
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Shrimp + salad Shrimp has become a staple protein in my diet. It’s either that or chicken. I’ve become obsessed with shrimp lately and I cook it a lot of different ways. These particular shrimp were made as part of a stir fry with rice and sauce. Pictured below is salad that I couldn’t finish. I put too much 1000 island dressing on it which is surprising because I typically like to have dressing with just a little bit of lettuce.
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Fruit & Fruit & fruit I always have at least two kinds of fruit in my fridge at a time. I love fruit so much and try to eat some everyday. Grapes have become really popular with me lately. When I don’t eat them a lot, they’re okay, but then I eat them again and I was like man these are awesome I forgot! Then above is a side of fruit that my parents boxed up and took from a restaurant for me! It all tasted a whole lot like pineapple.
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Other
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Chapstick, is it ever really gone? Chapstick.Everyone has at least five sticks of these babies at a time right? Am I the only one who believes they never actualy get used up? Its a wonder I could capture an image of one going to the trash. Usually they either get lost or just shoved in a drawer because they never truly run out. But this time, I couldn’t squeeze anymore out of this tube. Sayonara chapstick.
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Make-up, theres always some left Oh make-up. You terrible, wonderful thing. Much like our friend chapstick on the page above, you’re never really gone are you? We try and try to get every last drop but you make it impossible. When the foundation stopped coming out of the pump, I tried opening the top to dig my finger in there and scoop it up. But to no avail. I could in no way remove the top meaning it went off to the trash with probably 20% of the product stuck inside. The cover-up stick on the bottom made things a little easier. You can see how its now concaved from constant scooping. But I aim to get my moneys worth so its worth it.
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A time line of trash
Jerusalem: The Valley of Gehenna also called Sheoal in the New Testament of the Bible “Though I descent into Sheol, thou art there.” Sheoal was apparently a dump outside of the city of that periodically burned. It became synonymous with “hell.”
North America: Archeological studies shows a clan of Native Americans in what is now Colorado produced an average of 5.3 pounds of waste a day. New testament 6,500 BC
Paris France: Garbage piles so high outside of Paris gates that it interferes with city defense.
England : A report links disease to filthy environmental conditions “age of sanitation” begins.
New York: The first garbage incinerator was built in USA (on Governor’s Island in NY)
United States: Waste reduction plants arrive in US. (for compressing organic wastes). Later closed because of noxious emissions.
1400
1842
1885
1896
500 BC
1388
1690
1874
1889
Athens Greece: First municipal dump in western world organized. Regulations required waste to be dumped at least a mile from the city limits.
England: English Parliament bars waste dispersal in public waterways and ditches.
Philadelphia: Rittenhouse Mill, Philadelphia makes paper from recycled fibers (waste paper and rags).
Nottingham England: A new technology called “the Destructor” provided the first systematic incineration of refuse in Nottingham, England. Until this time, much of the burning was accidental, a result of methane production.
Washington DC: Washington DC reported that we were running out of appropriate places for refuse (sound familiar?).
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“Piggeries” were developed to eat fresh or cooked garbage (In the mid-50’s an outbreak of vesicluar exenthama resulted in the destruction of 1,000s of pigs that had eaten raw garbage. Law passed requiring that garbage had to be cooked before it could be fed to swine).
United States: There were about 300 incinerators in the US for burning trash.
Olympia Washington: Olympia pays for return of aluminum cans.
By 1968 companies began buy back recycling of containers.
United States: In 1976 Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) was created emphasizing recycling and HW management. This was the result of two major events: the oil embargo and the discovery (or recognition) of Love Canal.
1900
1914
1954
1968
1976
1898
1911
1920’s
1965
1970
1979
New York: NY has first rubbish sorting plant for recycling (are we reinventing the wheel?).
New York City: NYC citizens were producing 4.6 pounds of refuse a day (remember the Native Americans from 6500 BC mentioned above?).
Landfills were becoming a popular way of reclaiming swamp land while getting rid of trash.
United States: The first federal solid waste management laws were enacted.
United States: The first Earth Day was celebrated, the Environmental Protection Agency EPA created and the Resource Recovery Act enacted.
United States: The EPA issued criteria prohibiting open dumping.
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Teeth cleaning supplies Somehow I just happened to throw out my toothbrush and finish my toothpaste in the same week! I feel like I should change my toothbrushes out more often considering how frayed and worn this one is. With tubes of toothpaste, I always make an effort to get every last drop of toothpaste out of the bottle myrubbing it againt the side of my counter so it all gets pushed to the top. And finally we have floss. I honestly only flossed when I went to my dentist until my roommates yelled at me about it so then I started doing it more often and I guess thats probably smart.
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Burger-holding foil This foil held a gnarly burger that was loaded with macaroni and cheese and oozing with sauce. It held the mess in for a little while like a champ but then it had to come off so I could avoid eating it. Thanks for being there for me, foil.
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Crumpled sprite can This aluminum beauty holds the bubbly stuff. Its strange having this image in here since I rarely ever drink pop. Sprite is the only one ever once in a blue moon. I normally never crush my soda cans but you know what, it looked cooler this way.