As technology continues to adapt and change, along with the accessibility of online documents and other sources to create a digital footprint, the less and less the need of graphite and ink becomes as everything has slowly gone onto the computer. Photoshop, Adobe, ArtBreeder, all are current and popular ways of creating art. So, what is the future of art? Will everything be on holographic screens where people can touch, draw and write without the need of physical utensils? If you’ve seen Iron Man (the first one with Robert Downey Jr.), Tony Stark has these interactive holograms that he uses instead of pencil and paper. Less mess, less clutter, easily stored files, the possibility of the future. But what are some of the problems? Hackers and digital issues are a constant fear, the need to try and fix before anything happens is a very large market for Cyber Security, which will only grow in the face of advancing technology. Corrupt files, lost files, anything can happen and without a physical copy. So, the question is what would happen in the dismissal of graphite and ink? Would we thrive? Or would we fall? How expensive and luxurious will pencils and markers become? Or will they become completely obsolete?
Author: ejg22
Audio Junkie – The Tale of an E-waste Hoarder
Headphones, earbuds, none are safe from the hands of the Audio Junkie. One side of the headphone/earbud doesn’t work? Put it in the drawer, not in the trash because “what if” it’s needed if the new pair gets lost or broken? Technology nowadays is so expensive for great-good quality, and inexpensive for meh quality, both of which are great for those who have access to them. But the Audio Junkie? No, no. See, they are also the Audio Assassin, able to kill 2 “high quality” headphones in the span of 5-8 years just by listening to music on a constant basis for hours at a time, and 3 gaming headsets for constant use and accidental droppings. How has our junkie earned this title? From their parents, of course. They’ve had the same pair of headphones for over 8 years, sure they barely use them, but that’s no excuse. If they can make their headsets last that long, so can our junkie. True? False! Headphones are designed to last for a decent amount of time; however, they are meant to be eventually replaced like many other things. Sometimes these headphones are advertised to have a longer life span than what that person got out of it. Our junkie for example had a pair of headphones that were brand new, completely fine one day and then all of a sudden in a few weeks the audio began to cut out and act weird. Well, that shouldn’t be happening, especially when the headphones were over 50$, but it did. After that, the headphones started working but the audio jack for calls and a mic stopped working and began to cut in and out constantly making them sound like a busted-up robot stuck in a bad 80s dance party. Did they get rid of these headphones? No! They went in the drawer because “just in case” they might need them, due to that “what if” portion that scratches their brain. 2 fallen soldiers are placed inside drawers, one that lasted from middle school to high school, and then another pair that lasted from high school to last year. Now, the junkie won’t deny that both headphones were of good quality, and they got many years out of them, but that hasn’t stopped their parents (father) from making fun jabs. Where the true “assassin” title comes in, is the gaming headsets. One died of old age as they had the headset from their 12 birthday to the beginning of high school. Afterwards, the new headset died a little over a year ago, and finally the previous headset from their current that randomly died out of the blue, despite being barely used. Has our junkie thrown out any of these broken sets? No! Even the busted robot mic is still somewhere in their room, probably under a dresser or something. Why? Simple: “what if”. And yes, our Audio Junkie is me. I am the Audio Assassin.
Bedding wrapping
Buying bedding in bulk often comes with a large price tag and an even bigger bag of plastic wrapped around it. Personally, I don’t buy bedding pellets as they’re typically a bit too rough for rats and I don’t trust my ferrets to not knock all of it out instead of letting them cause chaos however they like. Instead, I buy soft bedding, usually the Kaytee brand for my rats as it expands and is much better than wood shavings. I know very little of what actually happens to the bags once I’m done using them and place them in the recycling, but I can’t help but feel like I’m recycling something that isn’t meant to be recycled. The bedding itself on the back of the packaging claims “Clean & Cozy (TM) bedding is made from ingredients that don’t contain harmful chemicals or by-products. Instead, the bedding is a super-soft, colorfast bedding that is safe for your pets and won’t stain their cage. These products reduce the amount of waste material that ends up in the landfill. How do they do it? We get more out of our resources by using discarded remnants and trimmings from other hygienic products which may otherwise end up in landfills.” 
These packages are very condensed, unfortunately the plastic is sturdy, but not sturdy enough to resist the animals that bite and rip at the plastic (ferrets). Now, I looked all over my package without trying to spill any of it and didn’t see a recycle sign. I’m hoping I haven’t been recycling something that is garbage. Their website also doesn’t say which is very frustrating, so I suppose all I can do is hope that I’ve been disposing of the empty plastic bag correctly.
Local: State or Otherwise
A waste site is like a clustered antique store, various things that seem like garbage, other pieces that seem perfectly fine and fairly new so why would it be there to begin with? Some items aren’t even out of their packaging, but they’re still discarded. A strange smelling treasure trove that has the best thing with it: junk. Junk is just wonderful, so many interesting things that tell stories about the people who had them previously, some part of their tale. In Idaho, waste sites were a decent drive away from the big city and other city clusters sometimes by 45 minutes if downtown or a bit further out that feel a bit more industrial and more company lead, versus the small local areas that also works with the state but seems much more hands on instead of machine lead and corporal based. It speaks a lot about funding, location, and community discussion. One talk was some waste sites are just dumping trash and leaving, others you can strike up a conversation and all of a sudden you are learning stories about the old sailboat that was thrown out with a broken mermaid statues and a large Halloween spider decoration. Some areas seem more person based, hans on instead of machine. Though I am not suggesting those who work in more industrial aren’t as friendly, I think they have a much stricter schedule that doesn’t allow for those types of conversations a lot of the time.
Maine’s stuffing problem
Maine has areas that are little/medium pop-ups near trash cans near more popular businesses and especially in restaurants that match that of the campus dumpsters, and always in various places when it’s a big event going on or a market pop-up like the weekly flea market or trunk and treat areas. This I’ve seen mostly occurs in Augusta, Portland and more of the touristy type of cities. Towns like Topsham, Lewiston, Brunswick, all of them have smaller versions that vary from place to place. Some weeks it’s the Wendy’s, other times it’s near the Aroma Joe’s, or Starbucks. It’s like a rotation of waste, but the weekends are always the busiest, and dirtiest. Lines go out into the streets, people piling inside the building and demanding orders, I haven’t seen my town on Black Friday or during the discount week, but I am afraid to which is why I will be becoming a hermit again and staying in my designated pie-coma spot. Christmas, trash is stuffed like a kid trying to make it look like they cleaned their room by hiding everything under their bed, summers kick up as well, fall not so much. Depending on the weather, the amount of people, sometimes that waste will be there for days, maybe a week if in a not-so popular area, though I haven’t seen much of that. It’s an interesting hidden, yet not hidden shame, not if you look and a lot of people don’t even if they claim they do.
Idaho vs. Maine
The highways and freeways of Idaho depending on the areas, are filthy. Trash, tires, broken car bits, dead animals, shoes, bags, a mattress, a toy baby stroller, all interesting things to see on the side of the road. There are signs that say “fine for littering, minimum $200” or somewhat depending on how populated and tourist based the area is. Sometimes Idaho feels like only certain areas stay clean and the rest are free-for-alls that get cleaned up eventually or will be there for a few years and become unspoken land markers. Maine, however, does not tolerate trash on the sides of the road, in fact I’ve seen multiple people pull over and start cleaning trash into bags and then putting them in their cars to take away and dispose somewhere else. Usually, it’s vehicular crashes that takes a bit to get cleaned up, especially the tire bits, but they do get cleaned. I think it’s interesting and speaks about both areas characters.
Where does it go?
I have seen various methods of disposability through living in 3 states: Ohio, Idaho, Maine and now an honorary 4th, Massachusetts. In Ohio there used to be family waste help where families would go to the dump and help out others by taking their trash with them, usually other friends and family members. There used to be, possibly still is a small company that would use regular pick-up work trucks to gather waste and make various runs to waste drop offs. More places in Ohio, at least in Wooster have become much more commercialized so bigger, international companies are becoming more popular and frequent. Idaho is interesting, how well the job was done depended on the truck and the people on shift. More times than others the garbage would be picked up no problem, others there would be some picked up and other parts and bags left if behind the bins or near them but not inside the bins. It was interesting, however that didn’t happen too often. Maine, however, my family takes the trash to the local dump site and recycling plant or stations around the area. My best experience with Massachusetts is the dorm dumpsters, very interesting things those dumpsters are. Not always horrible, but sometimes when it rains or there are more bags than normal, I’m convinced they become their own habitats.
Totally thought I already posted this
One thing that I reclaim, and reuse is old art boxes from Sketchbox that get sent to me monthly through a subscription. The boxes themselves are cardboard, with tissue paper and art supplies that are ~$15 in total. Each box is individualized to the themes and works, however they’re about the size of a singular shoe box. 
Now, these boxes are absolutely perfect for rat beds and the tissue paper is absolutely wonderful for comfortable bedding. Thankfully the space in these boxes is usually decently used which allows me to feel a little less guilty about having the boxes to keep in my room. These boxes are usually ripped apart, soiled, and very well loved by my little babies, specifically Miss Brain who keeps her domain in a sketchbox. Sometimes these boxes feel like Amazon boxes and I’m worried that it’s wasteful, but I give them to my rats who happily reuse them and give the boxes a new purpose which includes the adoration of cardboard. Fun fact: when cardboard gets ripped up various times into smaller and smaller pieces, the softer it becomes and feels just like tissue paper and usual bedding that you can buy from the petstore. My other rat Pinky has made this into a fine art, and my third rat Esmerelda is her co-conspirator. Miss Brain has her own box that she uses as her castle of herdom.
Rats, bedding, nesting, oh my!
Ferrets, rats, both produce an impressive amount of soiled bedding and toys that smells completely awful if not cleaned up fast enough. Besides the bedding and toys, the debris and trash of dug out food and stuffing can be left all over the ground and it can pile up very quickly. My responsibility to not only myself, my peers and my furbutts is to make sure that I have a cleaned area that is sanitized. To my animals, I want them to be comfortable and keep them healthy. To my peers I want to make sure that they aren’t bothered by the smell or the worry of my critters getting out and getting into other’s personal items (they won’t, I’m very paranoid about it so I always check before I leave if there is any possibility that they could get out). I make sure when I clean up after them that I use a limited number of bags, deep cleaning to keep up for the next few days and then I’ll take the trash out to the dumpster outside of the dorm and throw it into the proper bin. My responsibility is to make sure that not only have I cleaned well, but that’s safe to not spill out on some poor soul. I believe my responsibility ends once I’ve checked all my marks. Now what happens to the poop-bag, I am not totally sure other than it will probably end up in some garbage dump, rotting with other trash and more than likely other poop-bags from my bi-weekly clean-ups. I only hope that the bags never rip, I have to clean it, and I know the pain of when the bedding drops and it’s just gross. To sum up this long-winded speech: my responsibility is to make whoever clears the dumps easier. The irony is that I have to constantly do this, so I’m still adding onto the waste, however I don’t think there’s a compost around here where I could donate a very constant stream of fertilizer.
Stinky Weasels
Nothing can shit at greater amounts other than a rabbit or rat, is a ferret. Yes, the title may be misleading, but I promise you they are weasels at heart. My mischief bunch produce an impressive amount of shit in the span of 3 days which causes me to be very uptight with a cleaning regiment. My rats are not as bad, they poop in little pellets and it’s much easier to clean. However, ferrets, very different story. They can have very smelly shits and ferrets themselves are stinky, so I give them vitamins and treats that have helped IMMENSLY with their odor. I have made the joke multiple times to my mother that we don’t need a composter, we just need to let the ferrets do their business and when I clean the cage, she has free waste. She was not amused by my suggestion, but she didn’t deny that it could possibly work. Rat shit would probably break down easier because they have a plant-based diet, versus that of a ferret that has a meat-based diet. Ferret shit, if left long enough, can mold and trust me when I say they are very good at hiding where they poop at times, which is why I watch them like a hawk and make sure they do their business in their cage instead of somewhere in my dorm room. Most people see ferrets and think of dirty, disgusting animals, the same for rats, but neither of them is that bad. Rats are very hygienic animals, obsessed with being clean and looking their best, while ferrets will clean and groom each other on a constant basis as a way of taking care of one another. So, yes, they are dirty in some ways, but aren’t humans dirty too? We shit, we make messes, we can smell, but that doesn’t lessen our value, it just makes us who we are in the end: animals. Everything poops, some are just worse than others.