Students participating in a waste audit at Capilano University in October, 2012. There are many potential roles for archaeologists in the study and managment of contemporary waste, including becoming active in waste audits. Photo courtesy of Robert Muckle
North Americans in the early 21st century, it may be argued, are the most wasteful people anywhere and anytime.
Despite promising initial work by archaeologist Bill Rathje and others to help reduce and manage contemporary waste as well as learn about consumer and waste behaviour in North America, with few exceptions, the potential contributions of archaeologists has not been fulfilled. Considerable current interest in waste management provides another opportunity for archaeologists to re-establish themselves as leaders, or at least participants, with something to contribute in studies of trash.
Archaeologists have the potential to have significant roles in reducing and managing the contemporary waste stream. These roles may include (i) becoming actively involved in waste audits, (ii) using studies of contemporary trash to advance and popularize archaeology, and (iii) advocate for the protection of landfills.
Waste has been a topic of considerable recent interest. In 2012 alone, for example, the October issue of Anthropology News was a theme issue on waste, Pulitzer-winning author Edward Humes published Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash, the Encyclopedia of Consumption and Waste: the Social Science of Garbage was released, and there was a special section on waste in the August 10th issue of Science.
The Mess We Are In
According to Humes, Americans are the most wasteful people on Earth, creating about 7.1 pounds of trash per person, per day. Some nuggets of data in his book include the following: the yearly loads of garbage trucks in the United States would fill a line of trucks half-way to the moon; Americans create 25% of the world’s waste; more money in the United States is spent on waste management than on fire protection, parks and recreation, libraries, and schoolbooks; Americans throw out about 60 million water bottles each day; enough aluminum is discarded by Americans each year “to rebuild the entire commercial air fleet four times over” and enough plastic wrap is thrown away every year to shrink wrap Texas.
What to do with the immense quantity of trash is very much a problem. Of course it isn’t only the volume that is important. Much of the trash is at the cost of environmental destruction, including but certainly not limited to, wasting valuable resources on packaging, chemical pollution, and finding plastics in birds, fish, and other animals.
Archaeology and Waste Audits
Waste audits are relatively recent phenomena, and appear to be on the rise. I was introduced to waste auditing where I work, at Capilano University. In 2011 the first audit revealed an interesting, but troubling, result – one of the most dominant visible constituents of trash was trash bags. Large plastic trash bags filled with small plastic trash bags. It reminded me of the godfather of garbology Bill Rathje’s comment (from long ago when he first began excavating landfills) that a dominant component of landfill sites was newspapers filled with editorials decrying the waste going into landfills.
Waste audits are important for a number of reasons, including providing a baseline of data that can be used to more effectively manage the waste stream, measuring success, and educating those involved in creating waste. Some of things that have occurred as a result of waste audits at Capilano over the past year include significantly reducing the amount of organics, trash bags, and ‘refundables’ in the waste stream.
I’ve recently had the opportunity to discuss waste audits with folks from the waste industry, institutional management, and environmental science and have the clear sense that people in all these sectors recognize the potential role that archaeologists have in waste audits. I believe that they recognize the potential for archaeologists to bring their particular sets of methods and theory to waste audits in beneficial ways. I, for one, am hopping aboard the waste audit train. My archaeology students and I will be prominent participants in the Spring, 2013 audit. I encourage others to follow suit, either by initiating or simply participating in audits. The time is now. The entire field of waste audits is in its infancy. I have the impression that those in the fields of waste, sustainability and environmental studies would welcome the participation of archaeologists, but they aren’t likely to come calling. Archaeologists are going to have to be pro-active.
Those interested in short films about the audits at Capilano are directed to a 4 minute documentary by filmmaker Marina Dodis called A Black Hole of the Fall, 2011 audit and a 2 minute video of the Fall, 2012 audit produced in-house.
Advancing Archaeology
Archaeologists can use contemporary trash and the widespread interest in it in multiple ways. They can use the accumulations of modern trash to test hypotheses and develop new methods. There is the potential to access non-traditional sources of funding for archaeology (eg. those from industry or government concerned with waste). As we learned from Bill Rathje, becoming involved in contemporary trash is one effective way of popularizing archaeology. Also, there will likely be plenty of opportunity to form new kinds of collaborative projects with those in industry, institutions, and other academic fields such as environmental science and sustainability. Stacey Lynne Camp (2010) recently wrote an article in World Archaeology (42: 430-442) called “Teaching with trash: archaeological Insights on university waste management” showing how archaeologists can use campus trash to both teach students field methods and contribute to the reduction trash.
Protecting Landfills
The protection of landfills is probably not something most North Americans think about, but it may be important. It is also not without precedent. The Fresno Sanitary Landfill was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2001. What is perceived as waste in North America is perceived as a resource elsewhere, and as the wasteful nature of North American society continues, North American waste may itself transition into a resource within the North American mindset in the near future. A perusal of literature on waste and discussion with those involved in waste management tell me that the mining of landfills for resources is likely to happen in major ways soon. Archaeologists have experience in advocating for the protection of heritage sites, which may easily be transferability to landfills. It may sound odd, but it should be considered. The annual deposition of wood alone in American landfills, according to Humes can heat 50 million homes for 20 years. If not for offering insight into the value of resources in landfills, archaeologist may also want to advocate for the protection of some landfills for the knowledge they contain about early 21st century life in North America.
Archaeologists have generally appreciated the efforts of Rathje and others in studying contemporary trash, but mostly the work has been marginalized. And with rare exceptions, few archaeologists have picked up on the major strides he and others made in the 1970s and 80s. I think archaeologists are gettting a second chance at making highly significant contributions to reducing, managing, and learning from contemporary waste, and they should take advantage.
Robert Muckle has been practicing, teaching, and writing about archaeology for more than 20 years. He has had his own CRM firm, worked extensively with Indigenous peoples, and directed many field projects. Publications include Introducing Archaeology, Reading Archaeology and The Indigenous Peoples of North America, all published by the University of Toronto Press. He has archaeological field experience in both the United States and Canada, continues to direct field projects in the summer months, and is based at Capilano University. He may be followed on Twitter at @bobmuckle or contacted at bmuckle@capilanou.ca
Waste has been a topic of considerable recent interest. In 2012 alone, for example, the October issue of Anthropology News was a theme issue on waste, Pulitzer-winning author Edward Humes published Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash, the Encyclopedia of Consumption and Waste: the Social Science of Garbage was released, and there was a special section on waste in the August 10th issue of Science.