Maybe it is a bold move. I chose water as a ‘green’ item. When we wash the dishes or do our laundry, we use water and this water goes to waste, but not all of it. If the water goes the field, it is absorbed. And it is not totally wasted. We use laundry detergent and dish soap. These are the chemicals that are used. But water itself is a green object.

According to some reports at least two billion people around the world do not have access to a clean water supply. This affects individuals’ lives in more ways than one and can often lead to life threatening issues.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates and engineering firm Janicki Bioenergy are currently at the forefront of the most recent groundbreaking advances in water science by discovering a way to turn feces into clean drinking water.

A machine called the “Omniprocessor” boils sewage, which is divided into water vapor and dry waste. The dry waste is then burned at an extremely high temperature in order to create steam that powers the generator. After the water is boiled off of the sewage, it is filtered to produce clean drinking water.

 

 

I grew up among germophobic people. My mom doesn’t eat in restaurants unless staying hungry can jeopardize her health. For example, in 2021 after the fall of Kabul, we were evacuated first to Doha and then to Mexico City. In Doha, she ate boiled eggs for five days until her stomach started hurting. In Mexico City the situation got worse we were no longer in a Muslim country. She could not eat boiled eggs and even bread wasn’t a good option. We got some rice and been.

 

It is very difficult for me to go through others’ trash and rescue an object. There are some books and chapters in the hallway of the dancing hall. I put gloves on and wore my mask. I tried to find a book and get it. I could not find a book that was interesting, and I wanted to read it. So, I didn’t pick anything up. A lot of crazy thoughts popped up in my mind when I was going throwing the items. “What if someone has used the bathroom and didn’t hand their hands and touch the books, beside me who else was here and touched these books, how do I know they didn’t have covid and …” these were my thoughts during the failed rescue process.

 

Most of the items were textbooks. I assume they were left there by the students. They don’t need them anymore that is why the books were treated as waste. No, I don’t think it could be treated otherwise. Usually, when people don’t need some items they leave them outside, thinking that someone else could use them in their favor.

 

Next, I went to check the dumpster. It was disastrous. People had left their trash out, there were bags of trash. The smell was unbearable. I didn’t touch anything.

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.

Rescue something that seems useful to you that was placed in a waste bin/bag/dumpster. Post photos of the object and where you got it from if possible, and describe both of these. What was the experience of retrieving this object like for you? What from the readings this week (and earlier) can help to explain why this object has been treated as waste? Could or should it have been treated otherwise?

This plastic micro-SD card container that my new micro-SD card from Jeff Bezos’s Amazon.com shipped in was going to be thrown out by me, but thankfully I swooped in to save the day and stopped me from throwing it out, foiling Jeff’s evil schemes. I could have thrown it out, but it instead is perfectly useful as storage container for a full sized-SD card! Now I can store all of my pictures of micro-SD card containers in a safe container, where it will take the elements a very long time to destroy it (because it’s plastic!). Besides that, I am particularly squeamish – I still struggle to pick up my 15 year old dog’s poop, even with a glove on and a poop bag, and I have a history of passing out at sights of bodily fluids – I don’t find vomit very funny in comedy. I am conscious of my avoidance of the failure to actually retrieve something from a bin/bag/dumpster, but I have a get out of jail free card for this one B-)

I also want to reiterate my dedication to upcycling, particularly with scrap tech or various mechanical parts that I can handle in a way comfortable for me. The 3Rs – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – are fundamental, but misleading to the actual process. Yes, we should reduce our production, reuse our materials, and “recycle what we don’t use,” but how? Reducing and Reusing are themselves forms of recycling – and can translate to downcycling, which is the reduction and conversion of materials, like plastic and paper that are labeled “made from recycled material,” and upcycling, which is the reusing of materials in other projects, whether that be technologically, artistically, etc.

This is the lid to a pack of wipes that I used up. I got it from the small paper bag that I use as a trash bag in my room. The experience wasn’t too gross since most of the stuff I throw out in my room is not sticky or smelly. The lid was pretty far down and I haven’t emptied this trash in a couple of weeks since it doesn’t fill up very quickly so it was a bit of a look into some of my activities in the last couple of weeks. There was something from my last period, which gave me a bit of a timeline for the trash which was kind of cool.

This lid was thrown out because its original purpose was to be part of the container holding wipes and when the wipes were gone, it no longer needed to serve that purpose. When I first threw it out I was not thinking about the potential uses for it. By taking it out of the trash and adding it to my collection of things to be used, I am doing what people of the past were described to be doing in the reading by Strasser. Even if I don’t use it immediately, it will eventually be given another purpose. 

I could have saved the piece before ever throwing it away, rather than going back to find it. I have been trying to keep that in mind when throwing out other things. I have remembered to consider other uses for glass jars and some paper scraps, but those are the only two things I ever really think of before throwing them out. For the most part, I don’t often consider the possible uses for things I would otherwise consider trash.

My object that I retrieved from the trash is a plastic fork, I got it from FPH in classroom 107. The experience was quite odd at first if I’m being honest. I was on a run and after that I decided to start dumpster diving. I stopped at every one I saw. I was finding that it was the same objects being thrown away in most of the trash cans. A lot of soda cans, plastic cups, to go containers and paper plates from the dining hall, and papers. It felt weird holding my phone flashlight peering into dumpsters, it just isn’t something that you’d normally see someone do. However we are at Hampshire so I don’t think people will think it’s that abnormal. I got into it and thought I’d find more interesting discarded objects inside and even though a plastic fork is not all that interesting it is an object I think is useful. 

I believe there are many reasons why this particular object is regarded as waste in our culture. In “A Brief History of a Tomato” capitalism is the dominant theme/point. In it the “freegans” live off of the leftovers of capitalism’s endless mass production of material objects and American societies’ wasteful food practices. I would say capitalism is why this fork was thrown away. It’s made of plastic, which in my opinion is the material that is most associated with being trash. Not to say that other materials can’t be thrown away, but plastic is more often used than others for one time use things like packaging (on just about anything), grocery bags, trash bags, drink bottles, straws, etc. It is also used for more long term use items as well, but it is cheap to produce and extremely versatile so it’s not a wonder why humans use it so much. 

More specifically on plastic forks, they’re given out in plentiful amounts here at Hampshire and elsewhere so I understand why people would throw them away if they know next time they need one a new one will be there. I keep a couple in my room and will use them when I bring meals back. 

Rescue something that seems useful to you that was placed in a waste bin/bag/dumpster. Post photos of the object and where you got it from if possible, and describe both of these. What was the experience of retrieving this object like for you? What from the readings this week (and earlier) can help to explain why this object has been treated as waste? Could or should it have been treated otherwise?

Readings from this week:

Barnard, Alex V. “A Brief History of a Tomato.” In Freegans: Diving into the Wealth of Food Waste in America. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2016, 1–23

California v. Greenwood. 1988. 486 U.S. 35.

Strasser, Susan. “The Stewardship of Objects.” In Waste and Want: A Social History of Trash, 1st ed. New York: Metropolitan Books, 1999.