today i was going through my e-mails and came across a very interesting parallel. It was an article on the Green Garbage Project, which was started by a concerned couple to try and see how little waste they could produce within a year.
the reason why i was so drawn to this article was that a little less than two weeks ago my roommate, kim, a friend of ours, justin, and i just showed an installation of all the recyclable 'waste' kim and i have been hoarding in our apartment for seven months. and now we are looking to be even more thorough in collecting our waste for the next year.
in the first installment of our project we set out collecting these items so we could re-purpose them and reduce waste. we use glass drink containers and jars as dishes. we use plastic containers as tupperware, planters, and dishes as well. we use milk cartons, cans, and fruit containers as planters. cardboard, and containers have been used for art projects and canvases. tuna cans make great ashtrays and coin dishes. and even still we have more bottles and cans and bags and cartons than we can really handle in our tiny three bedroom boston apartment.
and that's two eco-friendly art students' consumption rate, not even the average american.
we did the math and we produce around .35 lbs of recycling per person per day, which is very low compared to the average 4.5 lbs of garbage the average person generates. and on average it takes us about a week and a half to fill up a kitchen trash bag with the other waste. so even with numbers lower than the average american, in only recycling we were able to fill an entire squash court.
that's a lot of trash. and when you hold onto it and live with it in your space every day for seven months it really strikes you how much trash we're making on this planet. and how necessary it is to be responsible for that waste.
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