Garbology Chapter 8

This chapter did not really catch my attention, although some parts were important to know. Bill Rathje, the archeologist, started a garbage project which basically was used with his students. They did independent projects on the difference in trash between a poor family and a rich family. They said it was pretty equal but the poor family spent more on child education. There was one quote that Rathje said that I found very true "Most people don't know their trash...but through their trash, we sure do know a lot about them."I found that very interesting and also very true. Trash can tell you so much about the person throwing it away, even in the ancient times. Archeologist have found out so much about the past from their trash. That is very interesting. Due to the successful experiment with the two families (the poor and rich) , the Garbage Project became huge and spread more and more. They used the garbage project from examining food wastes to toxic household waste. The Garbage Project also helped with the incomes and demographics in different neighborhoods.

Response to article about incinerators

The question was "How would you feel about having one of these state-of-the-art plants — lovely or unlovely — in your town, in your neighborhood?"

 I wouldn't mind having it in my town because it is helping get rid of trash and our planet is already very toxic so a incinerator isn't going to harm us as much as we are doing already. I think ot would be a good idea especially because it gives off electricity and heat. 

Garbology Chapter 7

This chapter was odd for me because I never knew that trash could be tracked! I thought it was just trash, like it didn't matter where it went. So they would put a electronic tracker in the trash and locate where it would end up from what I took of it. Seattle is very eco-friendly and it was interesting to find pout that they recycle about 50 percent due to the Trash Track as it states in Garbology, page 148. There were three ways the trash technology would work and Humes was very descriptive about it. So Humes explains how many electronics were disposed and as I looked at the chart, I realized most of them had a high rate of disposed. Very little was recycled, that was very sad to hear. all these things that spend tons of money on aren't even being reused. So we are basically buying things to just throw away later. Just for temporary entertainment.

Garbology Chapter 6

This chapter was so interesting and I really learned so much! First off, I really respect Miriam Goldstein, the scientist, because she has so much dedication to do all these experiments on plastic in the ocean. She even says that it is more difficult to examine plastic in the ocean then an archeologist or paleontologist because you cant know the exact age of the plastic. So most experiments are difficult to declare, due to uncertain elements. In other words, they cant say exactly where and when the plastic got to where it is. Humes really shows how he feels about the plastic in the trash and from what I got, he seems to be very annoyed and worried about it. The sad part was learning about how the sea animals had little plastics in their body, which then transfers to our body due to seafood markets and restaurants. Another thing that caught my attention was when Humes said that Goldstein, "Pacific Garbage Patch", found garbage floating around twice as large as Texas!!! You could find that on page 130 of Garbology. He also blames it all on man-kind, because he says "as Goldenstein points out, there's really nothing to debate about who and what is turning the oceans into plastic soup, as plastic is a completely man-made substance"(Humes 135). When I read this quote, I put 3 stars by it to show how much I loved that! I mean, he does have a point and it clearly shows that it is man-kind's fault. There was so much information in this chapter, I spent so long highlighting things and writing little notes and stars for things I not only found interesting, but that I agreed with.

Review of "19-year-old student develops..."

First off let me just say how amazing it is that this boy is only 19 years old! If he can think of the solution to helping our environment, why can't the government? I mean he thought of something that can get rid of more then 7 million tons of trash! He thought of a way that can separate plastic from the plankton so the fish would not mix them up. It is greta that this method would save money, trash clean ups, and our environment. I do not see why we can't go along with his method, the least we can do is use less plastic.

Review for "Plastic in Pacific..." Article

It was so shocking to read that the garbage in the Pacific Garbage Patch is 100 times more then it was around 40 years ago! That's crazy! I never knew how horrible plastic was until I read that most of the oceans surface was filled with thousands of it. Not only is it surrounding our land but it is stuck inside the stomachs of the fish in the sea. Which is also stated in Garbology. I get the land being polluted with tons of garbage but the ocean? Next time I visit the ocean, it might not be as relaxing.

Garbology Chapter 5

This was one of the most interesting chapters of the book so far because it dealt with the ocean. I never realized how much garbage affects our ocean! I mean it is crazy to think about the amount of trash dumped into the water. It was sad to read about how many marine mammals and birds died due to the amounts of garbage thrown in the ocean. Another part that really got my attention was when Humes said that the little pieces of plastic floats around the ocean, the little fish eat the plastic thinking it is plankton, then the bigger fish eat the little fish, then we eat the big fish. So, in other words we have plastic in our body! It even said that there are little plastics our in our body washes which are substituting bar soap. It seems so weird to learn about all these plastics stuck in places you would never expect. It was really odd to learn about nurdles, which are basically pre plastic beads almost like liquid. It was said that 10 percent of beach clean ups consist of nurdles. Now when I go to the beach, I am going to be more aware of all that was stated in chapter 5.