Garbage Gumshoes

Ever wonder where your discarded coffee cup ends up?

According to the Associated Press, a new project by MIT researchers is attempting to answer just that question as a way of making people more aware of how their consumption affects the Earth.

Hundreds of people in Seattle have volunteered to have pieces of their garbage tagged with matchbook-sized tracking devices. The researchers are tagging 3,000 pizza boxes, printer cartridges, plastic bags and other discarded items, which the households will then put out at the curb as usual.

The battery-powered tag affixed to each piece of refuse will then use cell phone technology to transmit its location to MIT computers. Researchers and the curious public will be able to follow the garbage in real-time through its waste stream and to its final resting place.

The public can check out the results of the project in an exhibit beginning at Seattle's Central Library this Friday. The exhibit will illustrate the details of how about half of the 89,608 tons of waste that Seattleites discard annually gets to the landfill. The rest is recycled, reused or composted. However, studies from 2006 suggest that around two-thirds of the trash that finds its way to the landfill could be recycled or composted.

Brett Stav, planning and development specialist with Seattle Public Utilities, points out that this has consequences. The article quotes him as saying "We're definitely a throwaway society that sets it and forgets it. A lot of people forget about what happens to the things that they throw away and they don't really factor in their impact."

Image courtesy of stock.xchng