The Trajectory of Trash

Posted by Rebecca Eggleston on September 17, 2009

Waste is a complex issue for many cities and each city deals with it very differently.

This new project is tracking the journey of trash and recyclables to better understand what happens to it and to give people a “concrete sense of their impact on the environment in a way that might lead them to change their habits.”

“Through the project, overseen by M.I.T.’s Senseable City Laboratory, 3,000 common pieces of garbage, mostly from Seattle, are to be tracked through the waste disposal system over the next three months. The researchers will display the routes in real time online and in exhibitions opening at the Architectural League of New York on Thursday and the Seattle Public Library on Saturday.”

Electronic tracking devices have been attached to rubbish items in Seattle, New York and soon London will also be added to the list.

The multitude of contractors, transportation, fluctuation of price of materials and recycling processes, and difficulty in sorting have previously made it challenging to assess the most efficient methods of dealing with trash and recycling. The researchers hope to shed new light on where our trash actually ends up.