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Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair With Trash

Page 28

by Edward Humes


  Sea Education Association, 121

  seagulls, 32–33

  SEAPLEX (Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastic Expedition). See Project Kaisei

  Seattle, waste management in, 134

  SENSEable City Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. See Trash Track

  single-use grocery bags. See plastic grocery bags

  smart trash. See Trash Track

  Smith, Norton, 110, 113, 114

  Smith, Sheli, 152–53, 165–66

  soda bottles. See bottles

  solar power, 234–35

  Solid Waste Association of North America, 54

  Solid Waste Disposal Act (1965), 70

  Speiser, Mike “Big Mike,” 19–22, 54, 93–94

  Steiner, David. See Waste Management, Inc. (WMI)

  Steinman, Susan Leibovitz, 180–81

  Sterling, Bruce, 131

  Stookey, Nathaniel, 171

  Superbag Operating, Ltd., 210, 216

  Superfund program, 27, 83

  Swanson Foods, 66

  Szaky, Tom, 204–9

  TerraCycle, 204–9

  Themelis, Nickolas, 227, 231–32, 233–34, 236–37

  Thomas, Marta, 181

  toxic chemicals and materials

  in affluent versus poor neighborhoods, 150

  bio-magnification, 119–20

  dioxins, 49, 89, 230

  entrapment through plasma gasification, 224

  in e-waste, 138, 140–42

  improper disposal of, 30, 56, 149–50, 158

  in landfill leachate, 24, 83, 158–59

  in marine plastics, 99, 119–20

  mass burn technology output, 230

  municipal collection programs, 149–50

  in plastics, 66, 258

  Superfund program, 27, 83

  waste-to-energy emissions, 88, 89, 230, 232

  trash. See also Garbage Project; Trash Track; specific types and issues

  amount generated, 4–5, 7–9, 15, 52, 150–51, 256–57

  as archaeological record, 22, 145–46

  closed loop system, 76, 77, 175, 236

  components of, 34, 35

  costs of, 7

  emerging types of, 138

  export to China, 9–11

  facts about, 15, 95–96

  invisibility of, 6, 57, 139

  as measure of prosperity, 5–6, 58–60

  receptacle size and, 150–51

  trash Olympics, 54–55

  Trash Track

  citizen volunteers, 139

  e-waste follow-up project, 141–42

  findings of, 137–40

  goal and inception of, 132–34

  launch of trash into waste stream, 136–37

  location of program, 133–34

  technology used in, 134–36

  Ulehla, Niki, 169–71, 185–86

  Union Carbide, 70

  United Nations estimate of ocean plastic, 96

  upcycling, 13, 209

  Vienna, waste-to-energy plant in, 230

  Virginia Garbage War, 29

  Wareham, William, 180

  Waring, George E., 39–44

  waste. See trash

  wastefulness

  cultural shift from, 236–37

  invisibility of, 6, 57, 139

  as mind-set and habit, 161–64, 179, 217, 219

  as norm, 64, 257–59

  plastic grocery bags as symbol of, 217–19

  recycling as license for, 139, 177, 219

  to reduce, 260–61

  versus waste, 162–63

  Waste Makers, The (Packard), 62–63

  waste management. See landfills; waste-to-energy; specific issues

  Waste Management, Inc. (WMI)

  funding of Trash Track study, 132

  green technologies of, 80–81

  inception and growth of, 77–79

  landfill business of, 75–76, 78, 80

  waste-to-energy. See also power generation

  cost of large-scale plants, 232

  Danish model of, 227–29, 231

  district heating, 228

  emissions of, 88, 89, 230, 232

  mass burn technology of, 230

  objections to, 224–25

  plasma gasification, 224, 237

  versus recycling, 233–34

  regions adopting, 25, 227, 234

  small-scale operations, 227, 234–35

  trash flow for, 8

  unrealized visions for, 71, 73, 82, 84–90

  Waste-to-Energy Research and Technology Council, 241

  water bottles. See bottles

  wind energy, 229

  WMI. See Waste Management, Inc. (WMI)

  Woodring, Doug, 109

  Wright, Willard H., 68–69

  Wyeth, Nathaniel, 66

  Yorty, Sam, 29

  Zhang Yin, 9–11

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  EDWARD HUMES is the author of eleven critically acclaimed nonfiction books, including Force of Nature, Monkey Girl, Over Here, School of Dreams, No Matter How Loud I Shout and the bestseller Mississippi Mud. He has received the Pulitzer Prize, the PEN Award and numerous other awards for his journalism and books. He has written for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Magazine and Sierra. He lives with his family—including the two most recent additions, a pair of rescued racing greyhounds—in California.

 

 

 


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