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Weekly Trashed

Chad Norman — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 18:25:16 +0000

This morning I blew off sniping photos of poor trash management in favor of playing with my two boys – easy decision. So instead of posting a photo, I thought I’d post this numerical reminder of how blind we are to our consumption. Over 500 billion plastic bags are used worldwide each year, and the vast majority of these are thrown into the trash (more fun facts). Recycling can have an impact, but the goal is to avoid them all together.

Please take a canvas bag when you shop…and not just to the grocery store. If you don’t have one, check out The Little Green Bag Project for some free green bags of your own.

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Weekly Trashed

Chad Norman — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 12:17:34 +0000

I had a lot to choose from on my drive out this morning, but I went with this beauty. You constantly hear about how you are supposed to separate your recyclables – nothing new there. This resident followed that edict, but then decided to just throw the baby out with the bath water. Sitting next to their stuffed brown bin was this auxiliary trash can, filled to the brim with recyclable material. Yep, there’s some cardboard, paperboard, and even a few plastic bags. I find it odd that they would actually do all the time consuming parts (separation, breaking boxes down, etc.), and then stop short of the actual recycling.

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Weekly Trashed

Chad Norman — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 01:41:39 +0000

This one is simple compared to some of the cardboard catastrophes from previous weeks. An unbroken down box (recyclable) of bottled water (don’t get me started), filled with trash and on its way to the landfill. I also think that’s a brown paper bag stuffed in there, which is both reusable and recyclable. Makes you wonder what’s in the big brown bin, huh?

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Weekly Trashed

Chad Norman — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 23:14:26 +0000

Recycling cardboard isn’t that difficult, even if the county won’t pick it up for us. There’s a drop site just 1 mile from my neighborhood, which I use once a month. Yet every week I see house after house after house of people killing trees. And for what – to save time? I don’t buy it. They must still be under the delusion that their choices can’t possibly make a difference, but that’s simply not the case. Every choice matters, just ask the starfish that got thrown back.

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Weekly Trashed

Chad Norman — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 12:28:21 +0000

This week’s Trashed isn’t in your face like previous installments, but rather delicate…almost artistic. I imagine the resident adjusting the composition in an effort to make their ode to ignorance complete. A little styrofoam here, some yard waste there, balance the cardboard box on top – perfect!

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Weekly Trashed

Chad Norman — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 03:03:25 +0000

This week’s pile has one of my favorites: the box, inside a box, inside a box – all made of cardboard. A sacrificial recyclable puzzle. But I’m most concerned about that car battery. Lead-acid recycling programs are very successful at keeping toxic badness out of our groundwater. Drop sites in all three counties accept auto and marine batteries, and we should all take advantage of them.

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Weekly Trashed

Chad Norman — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 13:38:27 +0000

This week, I was surrounded by cardboard on my drive to work. It was everywhere. The four shots below were all taken within 10 houses of each other. It amazes me how reluctant people are to recycle their cardboard. Charleston County, if you’re listening, we NEED CURBSIDE PICKUP!!!

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Weekly Trashed

Chad Norman — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 19:11:27 +0000

This week’s Trashed goes back to the basics – corrugated cardboard…and lots of it. There are some other gems in this photo too. Lots of unbroken down boxes (bad for the garbage men) made of cardboard (recyclable), a bag of yard waste (compostable), bubble wrap (reusable), plastic grocery bags (recyclable), and plastic food containers (recyclable). Even more abundant is the ignorance, apathy, and disregard for the environment displayed by this resident. I think this column is starting to depress me.

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Weekly Trashed on Flickr.com

Chad Norman — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 17:20:42 +0000

Maybe it was the holiday? Maybe people just blew up their trash? Maybe this column is working? Whatever the reason, I’m happy to report that there were no bad examples of trash disposal on my way in to work yesterday (though my wife said had I gone one street over, I would have seen something truly scary – oh well.)

So I’m using this week’s column to announce that we’ve set up a gallery of our Weekly Trashed photos on Flickr.com. This means we can annotate the images to point out the bad stuff, as well as provide higher resolution files.

In addition, we’ve setup the Weekly Trashed Group at Flickr.com, which means anyone can contribute to the experiment. I encourage you to go out and photograph horrible examples of waste management, and post then in the pool.

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Weekly Trashed :: Office Edition

Chad Norman — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 02:15:14 +0000

Well, I didn’t find anything worthy of Weekly Trashed on my drive in this morning – just a couple of cardboard boxes, but nothing spectacular. So Justin thought we ought to lay this gem on you, spotted at our office.

For starters, the cardboard box -> inside a box -> inside a box is classic, and the massive “Please Recycle” icon is a nice touch. I see office paper, newspaper, plastic containers, and a book. Just to be clear (because it’s obvious that much of this is recyclable), the person responsible leaves the somewhat pushy message, “TRASH – PLS REMOVE.” And all sitting next to an empty trash can!

I’m certainly not doing it justice, so I hope Justin can lay down some more details. Great stuff!

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