WEBVTT - Can Pneumatic Tubes and Robot Sharks Solve Our Garbage Crisis? 0:00:14.480 --> 0:00:17.880 You're listening to part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:25.919 and iHeartRadio. Guess what, Mary, what's that mango? Do you know? 0:00:26.040 --> 0:00:29.360 There are around two hundred cities on Earth that have 0:00:29.600 --> 0:00:33.280 trash flying underneath them at speeds of up to forty 0:00:33.440 --> 0:00:39.159 three miles per hour. What I know? It sounds totally bizarre, 0:00:39.200 --> 0:00:42.239 but it is a very real innovation. It's called a 0:00:42.280 --> 0:00:46.120 pneumatic waste collection system and they've been installed in cities 0:00:46.159 --> 0:00:50.519 all over the world Stockholm, Soul, Singapore, Dubai, even Disney 0:00:50.560 --> 0:00:51.400 World uses one. 0:00:51.520 --> 0:00:55.520 Ah. Yes, of course disney World one of my favorite cities. Wait, 0:00:55.600 --> 0:00:57.200 so how does this work? Exactly? 0:00:57.480 --> 0:01:01.600 So, the systems have these above ground waste inlets, which 0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:04.760 kind of look like pipes or mailboxes, but with round 0:01:04.760 --> 0:01:08.040 doors that people open to insert trash, and there are 0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:11.319 separate ones for recyclables as well. But when an inlet 0:01:11.400 --> 0:01:16.320 gets full, a trap door releases its contents into underground 0:01:16.360 --> 0:01:19.600 pipes and the trash gets sucked through the pneumatic tubes 0:01:19.600 --> 0:01:21.960 to a waste station thanks to the force of these 0:01:22.000 --> 0:01:24.560 spinning industrial fans. Isn't that incredible? 0:01:24.680 --> 0:01:27.600 It's also a very whimsical way to deal with garbage. 0:01:27.640 --> 0:01:30.440 It also feels like the future, and this tech is 0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:33.800 actually good for the environment. The company that first built 0:01:33.840 --> 0:01:36.560 these tubes, ENVAC, claims that the system can lower the 0:01:36.600 --> 0:01:40.679 distance driven by garbage trucks by ninety percent, and this 0:01:40.760 --> 0:01:44.920 of course reduces air pollution, diesel emissions, and hardest of all, 0:01:45.000 --> 0:01:47.400 especially if you live in a place like New York City, 0:01:47.880 --> 0:01:52.080 local traffic, which gets slowed down tremendously by these trucks. 0:01:52.360 --> 0:01:56.160 According to locals in Bergen, Norway, which began building a 0:01:56.200 --> 0:01:59.720 pneumatic waste collection system in two thousand and seven, it 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:02.600 has also lowered rat sightings. 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:06.160 Well that is a bummer for rat fans though. 0:02:06.080 --> 0:02:09.040 Right, yeah, Well rat fans can always come to New 0:02:09.120 --> 0:02:11.520 York City to get their fixed I think last. But 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:15.720 these systems are not cheap. Bergen has spent one billion 0:02:15.840 --> 0:02:18.600 kroner on the system so far, which is one hundred 0:02:18.720 --> 0:02:21.760 million US dollars, and they estimate it'll take another thirty 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:24.440 million dollars to complete it. But the city officials say 0:02:24.480 --> 0:02:27.800 they've already saved twenty two million dollars on waste collection 0:02:28.320 --> 0:02:32.119 since the system launched, so in time, actually this investment 0:02:32.160 --> 0:02:32.920 will pay off. 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:35.680 Well, you know, that's really good news because one of 0:02:35.680 --> 0:02:37.920 the things I learned in my research this week is 0:02:37.919 --> 0:02:43.200 that humans generate two billion tons of municipal solid waste 0:02:43.520 --> 0:02:47.000 every year. Now, if we packed that amount of garbage 0:02:47.040 --> 0:02:50.480 into standard shipping containers and lined them up, it would 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:55.640 wrap around the equator twenty five times. And yeah, no, 0:02:55.720 --> 0:02:59.440 it gets worse. Municipal solid waste is expected to rise 0:02:59.480 --> 0:03:03.560 to three point eight billion tons annually by twenty fifty. 0:03:03.880 --> 0:03:06.920 So today on the show, we're talking trash, what we 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:09.280 can learn from it, why we have so much of it, 0:03:09.680 --> 0:03:12.000 and most important, what we can do with it. 0:03:12.160 --> 0:03:35.880 So let's dive in. Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:39.040 Part Time Genius. I'm Mongish Articular, and today I'm here 0:03:39.080 --> 0:03:43.120 with super producer Mary Philip Sandy, and over there in 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:46.160 the booth is our pal and producer Dylan Fagan, who's 0:03:46.200 --> 0:03:49.400 wearing quite the outfit. He's got a long yellow coat, 0:03:49.880 --> 0:03:55.440 red button down, clear tie, yellow pants, and the most 0:03:55.520 --> 0:03:59.960 amazing thing is the silver sunglasses he's wearing. There's no 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:02.640 way he can see through those, but obviously I think 0:04:02.720 --> 0:04:04.720 he's channeling, right Doc Brown? 0:04:04.920 --> 0:04:06.960 Is that right? Very Yeah, that's what it looks like. 0:04:07.360 --> 0:04:10.520 Back to the future as he powers his Delaureate up 0:04:10.560 --> 0:04:14.920 with trash to go exactly, he's going back to the future. 0:04:15.280 --> 0:04:18.240 You know, I wonder if Doc Brown got into podcasts 0:04:18.279 --> 0:04:20.839 when he landed in twenty fifteen. I would love to 0:04:20.880 --> 0:04:24.600 hear his take on cereal. Actually, I think Doc Brown 0:04:24.600 --> 0:04:25.719 would be a reply all fan. 0:04:26.000 --> 0:04:27.200 Right, yeah, I think so too. 0:04:27.520 --> 0:04:30.840 Okay, Well, anyway, here we are in twenty twenty five, 0:04:30.920 --> 0:04:33.200 and we are still waiting for some of the inventions 0:04:33.240 --> 0:04:35.279 back to the future promised. You know, every year I 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:37.200 think this is it, this is the year we finally 0:04:37.240 --> 0:04:40.839 get hoverboards, and every year I'm disappointed. But you know what, 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:43.880 using trash to power cars would be even better than 0:04:43.880 --> 0:04:44.520 a hoverboard. 0:04:44.920 --> 0:04:47.320 Yeah, especially since we generate what would you say, two 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:48.440 billion tons a year. 0:04:48.839 --> 0:04:52.040 Yeah, two billion tons of municipal waste a year. But 0:04:52.160 --> 0:04:55.800 that term municipal waste, it only refers to waste generated 0:04:55.800 --> 0:04:59.640 by individuals, schools, and businesses. You know, things like food 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:03.800 contain used paper, worn out clothes basically the stuff that 0:05:03.839 --> 0:05:05.880 you put out and it gets collected by the garbage truck. 0:05:05.960 --> 0:05:08.600 And by the way, I mentioned worn out clothes because 0:05:08.760 --> 0:05:13.200 textiles are a huge source of waste. Globally, we throw 0:05:13.240 --> 0:05:18.520 away an entire garbage truck's worth of clothing every single second. 0:05:19.040 --> 0:05:20.920 That is insane, it is. 0:05:21.320 --> 0:05:24.320 But here's the thing, Mango, all this municipal waste, it's 0:05:24.360 --> 0:05:27.600 actually only three to five percent of the total waste 0:05:27.640 --> 0:05:28.720 people create every year. 0:05:29.080 --> 0:05:31.839 So so where's the rest of the waste coming from? 0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:36.000 So the rest includes waste for mining, farming, construction, not 0:05:36.080 --> 0:05:38.840 to mention human waste and pollution. Right, all of that, 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:41.800 and when we factor all of that, in the United 0:05:41.839 --> 0:05:46.480 States alone creates around twelve billion tons of waste every 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:50.640 single year. But listen, I could give trash statistics for hours. 0:05:51.960 --> 0:05:56.359 I'm going to cut myself off. Yeah right, let's go 0:05:56.440 --> 0:05:58.200 back to the beginning. I know you looked into this, 0:05:58.240 --> 0:06:01.360 so tell me when did people start creating trash? 0:06:01.680 --> 0:06:04.720 Yeah, so there has always been some level of waste 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:08.080 created by humanity. But I really like the way that 0:06:08.400 --> 0:06:11.560 Wilson Hughes, who is former co director of the Garbage 0:06:11.600 --> 0:06:14.720 Project at the University of Arizona in Tucson, puts it. 0:06:15.320 --> 0:06:19.640 He said, quote, our forefathers created waste with stone chips, 0:06:20.040 --> 0:06:22.360 but it didn't become a problem until they settled down 0:06:22.480 --> 0:06:25.680 and began living in one place. That's when societies had 0:06:25.680 --> 0:06:28.160 to start thinking about what to do with it, which 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:30.440 is fascinating, right, Like you don't think about the evolution 0:06:30.520 --> 0:06:34.200 of garbage. But one place our ancestors settled in was 0:06:34.400 --> 0:06:38.120 this place called Chattel hu Yuk, which is located in 0:06:38.200 --> 0:06:41.760 modern day Turkey. It was a Neolithic settlement and it 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:45.080 dates back to around seventy four hundred to sixty two 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:47.920 hundred BCE. This is one of the earliest cities we 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:51.760 know about, and people tossed waste between their houses until 0:06:51.800 --> 0:06:54.960 those houses merged together, and then they built structures on 0:06:55.080 --> 0:06:59.080 top of that waste, and this practice continued for generations. 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:02.880 That's really I guess that's feasible if your waste isn't 0:07:02.920 --> 0:07:05.720 mostly made up of like fast food wrappers and industrial 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:09.800 chemicals like ours. Yeah, yeah, okay, So when did people 0:07:09.840 --> 0:07:13.040 actually start doing something to dispose of the trash other 0:07:13.080 --> 0:07:14.400 than just throwing it out the door? 0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:15.920 You know, I had the same question. 0:07:15.960 --> 0:07:19.040 It turns out people started burying their waste as early 0:07:19.080 --> 0:07:23.040 as three thousand BCE, so we know the Minoan people 0:07:23.080 --> 0:07:26.120 who lived in the city of Naussus on Crete did this, 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:30.160 and in five hundred BCE, Athens actually created this law 0:07:30.200 --> 0:07:32.600 that waste had to be disposed of at least a 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:35.720 mile outside of town, which is, you know, kind of 0:07:35.760 --> 0:07:39.440 incredible when you think about it. Still, this didn't immediately 0:07:39.440 --> 0:07:42.120 become the norm. Plenty of historic cities were known for 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:45.480 their trash and wastefilled streets. You think about places like 0:07:45.600 --> 0:07:50.200 ancient Rome, POMPEII, Victorian London right. In fact, many cities 0:07:50.200 --> 0:07:53.760 today are built on mounds of trash. In sixteen eighty six, 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:56.320 you could buy what was called a water lot in 0:07:56.320 --> 0:07:59.760 New York City, which actually cost one twenty fifth price 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:03.000 of landlot. And these water lots got turned into land 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:06.840 thanks to you guessed it, crash. So builders piled up 0:08:06.880 --> 0:08:09.840 silt and waste from ships and straight up garbage until 0:08:09.880 --> 0:08:11.280 there was land where the river. 0:08:11.240 --> 0:08:11.640 Used to be. 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:14.600 And this actually wasn't a practice just in New York. 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:18.200 Many US cities use this method to create space, including Seattle, 0:08:18.320 --> 0:08:22.040 New Orleans, Chicago, even Oakland. Of course, there was one 0:08:22.160 --> 0:08:24.600 other historic way that New York used to deal with 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:28.280 trash that I really think is worth mentioning. In eighteen 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:31.080 forty two, the New York Daily Tribune estimated that there 0:08:31.120 --> 0:08:34.680 were ten thousand loose pigs running around the city just 0:08:34.720 --> 0:08:37.440 gobbling up trash. 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:40.760 That is about ten thousand too many loose pigs, if 0:08:40.800 --> 0:08:41.360 you ask me. 0:08:42.760 --> 0:08:44.520 I know. But they were so good at eating up 0:08:44.559 --> 0:08:47.839 the garbage is that anytime politicians suggested getting rid of them, 0:08:48.080 --> 0:08:50.360 the public was completely outraged. 0:08:50.679 --> 0:08:52.800 Okay, well you got to listen to your constituents, right, 0:08:52.920 --> 0:08:53.800 let them have pigs. 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:57.560 Well, the thing is it was a pretty effective strategy too, 0:08:57.760 --> 0:09:01.080 So by nineteen oh two, about twenty five percent of 0:09:01.160 --> 0:09:03.560 US cities we're getting rid of garbage by feeding it 0:09:03.600 --> 0:09:08.840 to livestock. Not everyone loved the trash pigs though. Actually, 0:09:08.960 --> 0:09:12.880 Charles Dickens visited the US and in his travelog American Notes, 0:09:13.000 --> 0:09:17.000 he devotes multiple paragraphs to the scavenging New York pig. 0:09:17.440 --> 0:09:20.680 He writes, quote, ugly brutes they are having, for the 0:09:20.720 --> 0:09:23.760 most part, scanty brown backs, like the lids of old 0:09:23.800 --> 0:09:28.520 horsehair trunks spotted with unwholesome black blotches, which just feels 0:09:28.559 --> 0:09:30.560 like an esthetic problem more than anything. 0:09:31.400 --> 0:09:32.959 His body shaming the pigs. 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:36.520 It also feels weird that, like with that many pigs, 0:09:36.559 --> 0:09:38.720 like that none of the New York teams are named 0:09:38.720 --> 0:09:41.959 after pigs, right, I know, Oh my. 0:09:41.920 --> 0:09:44.480 God, someone needs to do that. Bring back the trash 0:09:44.520 --> 0:09:47.720 pigs as a mascot completely. 0:09:47.920 --> 0:09:50.400 But you know, it is worth noting that there was 0:09:50.480 --> 0:09:53.439 way less household trash in the US back then compared 0:09:53.480 --> 0:09:55.800 to today, So like, maybe pigs wouldn't be the most 0:09:55.800 --> 0:09:57.359 effective solution today. 0:09:57.520 --> 0:10:00.400 Right, right, Even one hundred thousand pigs couldn't keep up 0:10:00.440 --> 0:10:02.600 with the amount of waste wegenerate now. I mean even 0:10:02.640 --> 0:10:06.120 just in my neighborhood. And I assume the reason we 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:10.079 have more trash now is because our consumption habits have changed. 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:14.240 Right, absolutely, so, until very recently, most Americans couldn't afford 0:10:14.320 --> 0:10:17.680 to just toss things out, so things like clothes were 0:10:17.720 --> 0:10:20.720 mended over and over again until they finally became rags 0:10:20.760 --> 0:10:23.440 which you could use or sell. People knew how to 0:10:23.520 --> 0:10:26.960 fix furniture and glassware and tableware, and if they didn't 0:10:26.960 --> 0:10:29.000 know how to fix something, you'd take it to an 0:10:29.120 --> 0:10:32.720 expert for repair. Pretty Much everything got used up. Food 0:10:32.760 --> 0:10:35.800 scraps when to soup or were fed to farm animals. 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:39.360 Lots of waste could be returned to manufacturers. Even coal 0:10:39.440 --> 0:10:42.960 ashes were mixed with manure and used as fertilizer. 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:46.240 Yeah, there's something really appealing about that kind of lifestyle. 0:10:46.240 --> 0:10:49.240 It's like I saw this person on TikTok who had 0:10:49.280 --> 0:10:51.280 all of her garbage for a year and fit in 0:10:51.320 --> 0:10:52.080 one Mason jar. 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:54.600 Oh yeah, yeah, yeah completely, But. 0:10:54.760 --> 0:10:58.640 It's really not realistic for a lot of us anymore. Right, Okay, 0:10:58.679 --> 0:11:01.440 So as people began buying more stuff and all that 0:11:01.480 --> 0:11:05.120 stuff became more disposable, I imagine waste management had to 0:11:05.559 --> 0:11:06.280 keep up with it. 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:09.240 Yeah, and this change really took off in the early 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:12.800 part of the twentieth century. For example, in Pittsburgh, the 0:11:12.880 --> 0:11:15.800 amount of trash in the city rose by forty three 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:19.640 percent between nineteen oh three and nineteen oh seven. So 0:11:19.920 --> 0:11:23.000 by the early nineteen hundreds, most American cities had implemented 0:11:23.040 --> 0:11:27.520 some forum of municipal trash removal service, which meant pigs 0:11:27.520 --> 0:11:28.640 weren't required anymore. 0:11:29.880 --> 0:11:32.400 I love that you found one statistic here, and then 0:11:32.400 --> 0:11:34.960 it was just about Pittsburgh. So shout out to Pittsburgh. 0:11:35.920 --> 0:11:37.720 I've never been there, but I have always wanted to 0:11:37.720 --> 0:11:39.360 go there. Okay, mag Well, I mean. 0:11:39.360 --> 0:11:42.839 It's land of mister Rogers. It's not far from Falling Water. 0:11:43.160 --> 0:11:45.599 I like pittsfrog Yeah, yeah. 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:47.880 The Warhol Museum, if if anyone lives in Pittsburgh, tell 0:11:47.960 --> 0:11:50.040 us what we should go see there? Okay, okay, So 0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:53.040 obviously the next question is what do you do with 0:11:53.160 --> 0:11:55.720 all of this trash once you've picked it up? Well, 0:11:55.800 --> 0:11:59.320 incinerators were an early solution, inspired by European ones that 0:11:59.480 --> 0:12:02.880 had been around since the eighteen seventies, but that practice 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:05.560 started to decline during the late thirties when we borrowed 0:12:05.600 --> 0:12:09.679 yet another idea from Europe, the landfill, and since then 0:12:09.720 --> 0:12:12.400 that's been our primary method of garbage disposal in the 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:17.160 United States. And landfills are everywhere, but unless you live 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:21.280 next one, you probably don't notice them. They're typically located 0:12:21.360 --> 0:12:24.520 far outside cities, and they look like these big, treeless 0:12:24.640 --> 0:12:27.920 mounds that just blend into the landscape. But do not 0:12:28.080 --> 0:12:32.120 be fooled. These boring hills have a serious downside. They 0:12:32.120 --> 0:12:36.000 emit landfill gas, which is fifty percent methane and fifty 0:12:36.040 --> 0:12:39.560 percent carbon dioxide, so the bigger they get, the more 0:12:39.600 --> 0:12:43.040 they contribute to climate change. One thing we can do, however, 0:12:43.200 --> 0:12:46.840 is we can turn landfills into parks with vegetation and 0:12:46.960 --> 0:12:50.679 animal habitats, and that's the plan for Freshkills Park in 0:12:50.800 --> 0:12:53.440 Staten Island, here in New York. It was once the 0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:58.120 world's biggest landfill, and eventually it'll be a two two 0:12:58.240 --> 0:13:01.679 hundred acre public park that is three times larger than 0:13:01.720 --> 0:13:02.439 Central Park. 0:13:02.960 --> 0:13:04.520 That is really incredible. 0:13:05.480 --> 0:13:07.880 Actually, have you been to the Hirley Chisholm Park in 0:13:09.120 --> 0:13:09.960 it's in South Brooklyn. 0:13:10.120 --> 0:13:10.320 Yeah. 0:13:10.440 --> 0:13:14.119 Yeah, it's on a former landfill and it is so gorgeous. 0:13:14.600 --> 0:13:16.319 I have not. It's very far from where I live, 0:13:16.360 --> 0:13:18.319 but I've heard about. It's the largest state park in 0:13:19.400 --> 0:13:19.880 New York. 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:23.160 Yeah. We drove out there and it was stunning, Like 0:13:23.200 --> 0:13:25.760 there was stunning bird watching. You can't believe how beautiful 0:13:25.840 --> 0:13:28.880 is and you kind of forget you're in New York. 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:30.079 It's amazing. 0:13:30.440 --> 0:13:33.000 Yeah. Yeah, it's a really great use of a former landfill. 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:36.600 And the only problem is this process of converting landfills 0:13:36.640 --> 0:13:38.880 to parks. It takes a long time and a lot 0:13:38.880 --> 0:13:43.160 of environmental engineering. Landfills can take decades to settle, meaning 0:13:43.320 --> 0:13:47.400 their foundations shift over time, and to avoid public health risks, 0:13:47.559 --> 0:13:50.320 you need to figure out how to vent the landfill gas. 0:13:50.600 --> 0:13:52.520 So you can't just slap some turf on top of 0:13:52.559 --> 0:13:54.120 a garbage pile and call it a day. 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:57.000 Yeah, I mean I'm sure it takes a ton of 0:13:57.040 --> 0:13:59.679 work to make. But if we want the landfills to 0:13:59.720 --> 0:14:02.600 be small, I'm wondering, like, could we go back to 0:14:02.720 --> 0:14:05.040 burning the waste first and then burying it? 0:14:05.320 --> 0:14:07.679 Yeah, that is actually an option. This method has been 0:14:07.720 --> 0:14:10.160 adopted in a bunch of places in Europe, where the 0:14:10.200 --> 0:14:13.760 process is also used to generate electricity. Right, so that's 0:14:13.760 --> 0:14:16.720 a bonus. So some advocates are calling for the United 0:14:16.800 --> 0:14:19.840 States to do more of this too. The problem, of course, 0:14:20.000 --> 0:14:24.800 is that burning trash creates air pollutions. It'sually not perfect fix. 0:14:25.240 --> 0:14:26.760 So at the end of the day, we have the 0:14:26.840 --> 0:14:30.320 same options we've always had for dealing with garbage. We 0:14:30.360 --> 0:14:32.200 can toss it on the ground, we can put it 0:14:32.240 --> 0:14:34.520 in a hole, we can light it on fire, or 0:14:34.520 --> 0:14:37.400 we can find a way to reuse it. And luckily, 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:39.760 some scientists have come up with a way to turn 0:14:39.760 --> 0:14:43.360 garbage into something very valuable knowledge. 0:14:43.720 --> 0:14:47.240 No, no, no, it's true, I know, I know. It's amazing. 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:50.320 It's the most valuable product of all. And after we 0:14:50.360 --> 0:14:52.920 take a quick break, we'll find out how garbage can 0:14:53.000 --> 0:14:56.760 counteract government propaganda, and we'll also talk about some truly 0:14:56.800 --> 0:15:00.680 amazing things that have been found in the trash, Go anywhere. 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:18.560 Welcome back to Part Time Genius. In just a moment, 0:15:18.600 --> 0:15:20.320 I'm going to tell you about one of the coolest 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:22.320 scientific fields I've ever heard about. 0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:23.840 It's called garbology. 0:15:24.120 --> 0:15:26.360 But first I want to remind you to subscribe to 0:15:26.400 --> 0:15:29.560 the show on your favorite podcast app. Please leave us 0:15:29.560 --> 0:15:33.200 a nice rating and review, and if you enjoyed this episode, 0:15:33.600 --> 0:15:36.800 share it with a friend. Okay, So back to garbology. 0:15:37.160 --> 0:15:40.200 The term was coined in the early nineteen seventies by 0:15:40.440 --> 0:15:44.520 aj Weberman, and it became a legitimate scientific pursuit in 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:49.040 nineteen seventy three. This is when the archaeologist William Rathge 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:53.640 launched the Tucson Garbage Project. This involved analyzing over fifteen 0:15:53.720 --> 0:15:57.760 thousand samples of trash, which revealed tons of information about 0:15:57.800 --> 0:16:02.160 residents of Tucson, from what they how much alcohol they drank, 0:16:02.200 --> 0:16:05.520 to how good they were recycling and Researchers on the 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:08.520 project even learned that people tend to report eating a 0:16:08.560 --> 0:16:10.840 lot less junk food than they actually eat. 0:16:12.000 --> 0:16:14.680 You know, I actually did a garbology project of my 0:16:14.800 --> 0:16:18.760 own in fourth grade. Yeah, I've actually I have actually 0:16:18.840 --> 0:16:22.920 studied garbology at a university. I was nine years old 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:26.280 at the time. But I was really into archaeology back then, 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:28.800 and the University of Maine had these weekend classes that 0:16:28.840 --> 0:16:32.200 were open to the community. One of them was about garbology, 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:34.520 and I begged my parents to let me do it. 0:16:34.880 --> 0:16:37.920 They gave in, and it was just so fascinating. This 0:16:37.960 --> 0:16:40.000 is what I did when I was nine on the weekends, right, 0:16:40.080 --> 0:16:42.880 everyone else was playing sports whatever. But I had never 0:16:42.960 --> 0:16:45.440 thought before about the fact that a lot of what 0:16:45.600 --> 0:16:50.560 archaeologists dig up is just ancient garbage, right, like broken pottery, 0:16:50.680 --> 0:16:53.480 things that people discarded. So it makes a lot of 0:16:53.520 --> 0:16:56.240 sense that modern garbage can tell us a lot about 0:16:56.400 --> 0:16:59.200 modern people. So I got really into it, and then 0:16:59.280 --> 0:17:01.480 I got in a lot of trouble for sneaking around 0:17:01.480 --> 0:17:04.359 my school and digging through the classroom garbage cans. 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:10.879 I love that they just didn't get your vision. Yeah, 0:17:10.960 --> 0:17:13.440 I mean, if you think about it, scientists study human 0:17:13.440 --> 0:17:17.200 activity in all kinds of ways that could seem invasive. Right. Besides, 0:17:17.280 --> 0:17:21.760 garbology has a unique ability to reveal super accurate information 0:17:22.160 --> 0:17:25.240 even when we're hiding the truth or covering it up. 0:17:25.400 --> 0:17:27.600 And I can give you example this. So a few 0:17:27.680 --> 0:17:32.159 decades ago, historians studying China's Cultural Revolution, realized that they 0:17:32.160 --> 0:17:34.480 could learn a lot from papers and documents that have 0:17:34.560 --> 0:17:38.000 been tossed out by households and also by government officials. 0:17:38.200 --> 0:17:41.280 So they started collecting these artifacts at flea markets, and 0:17:41.359 --> 0:17:45.119 when word got out, locals sifted through trash to find documents, 0:17:45.200 --> 0:17:48.480 which they then sold to researchers. And because of this, 0:17:48.680 --> 0:17:52.320 historians discovered concrete evidence about things that happened during the 0:17:52.359 --> 0:17:56.960 Cultural Revolution, like government officials who deported people from cities 0:17:57.040 --> 0:17:58.960 to rural areas with that whole. 0:17:58.800 --> 0:17:59.879 Sent down youth stuff. 0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:03.240 Garbology has also been used to track changes in North Korea. 0:18:03.480 --> 0:18:05.240 So if you think about trash that washes up in 0:18:05.280 --> 0:18:08.080 South Korea, like there was a recent increase in more 0:18:08.160 --> 0:18:11.560 colorful candy wrappers, that actually reveals how their culture and 0:18:11.600 --> 0:18:15.399 economy has evolved over time. Even corporate America has gotten 0:18:15.400 --> 0:18:18.480 into the garbology game. So before everything we bought was 0:18:18.840 --> 0:18:23.040 easily tracked by barcodes and online shopping, some companies conducted 0:18:23.200 --> 0:18:26.240 dust bin audits to see how well their brands were 0:18:26.240 --> 0:18:27.160 doing well. 0:18:27.600 --> 0:18:30.320 Speaking of fascinating finds in the trash, I was really 0:18:30.400 --> 0:18:32.560 excited to look into this for this episode, and you 0:18:32.680 --> 0:18:35.720 would not believe some of the crazy things people have 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:37.679 discarded and then discovered. 0:18:38.000 --> 0:18:39.520 So give me an example, Okay. 0:18:39.960 --> 0:18:43.159 In twenty nineteen, an episode of Antiques Road Show featured 0:18:43.200 --> 0:18:45.719 a man who worked at a dump in England, and 0:18:45.760 --> 0:18:48.600 there he found a bunch of artifacts that once belonged 0:18:48.680 --> 0:18:53.000 to former Prime Minister Winston Churchill, including a top hat, 0:18:53.040 --> 0:18:58.280 a cigar case, and a signed photograph. 0:18:57.359 --> 0:19:01.560 That is an incredible three it of it is. 0:19:01.680 --> 0:19:05.160 And it gets even better because these items were verifiable 0:19:05.280 --> 0:19:08.920 as belonging to Churchill because they were accompanied by two 0:19:09.040 --> 0:19:13.439 hundred letters that he wrote to his cook, which it 0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:15.119 does seem like a lot of letters to write to 0:19:15.200 --> 0:19:18.720 one's cook, doesn't it. Yeah, but the show estimated that 0:19:18.760 --> 0:19:20.639 all these items that had just been thrown away were 0:19:20.680 --> 0:19:22.400 worth ten thousand pounds. 0:19:23.359 --> 0:19:24.840 I mean, in some ways, it feels like they should 0:19:24.840 --> 0:19:28.080 be worth more than ten thousand pounds, right like Winston 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:31.040 Churchill's letters to his cook feels like a book that 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:32.719 could deserve more of an advance in that. 0:19:33.240 --> 0:19:34.720 Yeah, I don't know. I think the guy he wrote 0:19:34.720 --> 0:19:35.800 a lot of letters though, if you. 0:19:35.720 --> 0:19:39.199 Think about it, right, Yeah, that makes sense. So do 0:19:39.280 --> 0:19:41.439 we know how all of this ended up in the trash. 0:19:41.880 --> 0:19:44.600 No, and we will never know because the guy who 0:19:44.640 --> 0:19:47.399 found the stuff refused to reveal the name of the 0:19:47.520 --> 0:19:52.080 dump where he wanted to keep it secret. But you know, 0:19:52.560 --> 0:19:55.720 ten thousand pounds worth of trash is chump change compared 0:19:55.760 --> 0:19:58.480 to this next one. In two thousand and four, a 0:19:58.560 --> 0:20:02.119 nurse named Melanie Steve found a plastic cello case with 0:20:02.280 --> 0:20:05.600 a cello inside, leaning against a dumpster in the Silver 0:20:05.680 --> 0:20:08.000 Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles, and so she had this 0:20:08.080 --> 0:20:10.920 kind of quirky idea. She decided she'd have her cabinet 0:20:10.920 --> 0:20:14.960 maker boyfriend fix some of the cracks and scratches in 0:20:15.000 --> 0:20:17.880 the cello and turn it into a case for her CDs. 0:20:17.920 --> 0:20:20.439 This was two thousand and four. She had CDs. What 0:20:20.560 --> 0:20:23.320 she didn't realize was that the cello had been stolen 0:20:23.400 --> 0:20:26.240 three days earlier from the front porch of the lead 0:20:26.400 --> 0:20:31.920 cellist for the La Philharmonic Organ and it was an 0:20:31.960 --> 0:20:36.040 irreplaceable vintage instrument built in Italy in sixteen eighty four 0:20:36.520 --> 0:20:40.840 and insured for three point five million dollars. Luckily, Melanie 0:20:40.880 --> 0:20:43.880 saw a news report about the theft before her boyfriend 0:20:44.000 --> 0:20:48.000 started turning the cello into a CD case, so she 0:20:48.160 --> 0:20:50.600 was able to contact a lawyer who helped get it returned. 0:20:50.640 --> 0:20:53.080 And that is your lesson. If you ever find a 0:20:53.119 --> 0:20:56.159 priceless cello in the trash, have a lawyer handle it. 0:20:58.560 --> 0:21:02.320 I mean, I'm glad we give our listeners tips about 0:21:02.320 --> 0:21:05.880 what to do if they find but you know, maybe 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:08.920 a rare Italian cello filled with Maroon five CDs would 0:21:08.920 --> 0:21:10.240 have been worth even more. 0:21:10.440 --> 0:21:13.040 On the other hand, come on, let's not assume the 0:21:13.080 --> 0:21:17.719 worst about Melanie's taste in music. It's not fair, Melanie. 0:21:17.880 --> 0:21:20.120 We know you're better than that. Okay. Here is one 0:21:20.200 --> 0:21:22.959 last story that also has a lesson for you. Always 0:21:23.119 --> 0:21:26.399 double check what you're bringing out to the trash. In 0:21:26.440 --> 0:21:29.960 twenty fifteen, the jewelry store Jay Bernbock Incorporated here in 0:21:30.000 --> 0:21:34.320 New York City was undergoing renovations and some workers accidentally 0:21:34.359 --> 0:21:39.600 threw away three wooden boxes of diamonds worth five million dollars. 0:21:39.480 --> 0:21:42.879 The security guard spotted the mistake, grabbed the boxes, and 0:21:42.920 --> 0:21:45.280 brought them into the bathroom. He then put all the 0:21:45.280 --> 0:21:48.160 diamonds into one box and walked right out the door. 0:21:48.520 --> 0:21:50.679 But the store had surveillance footage from the night of 0:21:50.720 --> 0:21:53.680 the theft, so it was pretty easy to identify the culprit. 0:21:54.000 --> 0:21:56.120 The guard was caught and he was arrested. 0:21:56.560 --> 0:21:58.040