1 00:00:02,160 --> 00:00:07,160 Speaker 1: Ephemeralist production of My Heart three D audio for full 2 00:00:07,200 --> 00:00:18,600 Speaker 1: exposure listen with that phones for a lot of us. 3 00:00:19,239 --> 00:00:22,840 Speaker 1: With the new year comes an opportunity to take stock, 4 00:00:23,840 --> 00:00:27,800 Speaker 1: consider what you have, what you want, what you may 5 00:00:27,800 --> 00:00:33,400 Speaker 1: not need anymore, and maybe do a little cleaning. It's 6 00:00:33,440 --> 00:00:36,360 Speaker 1: a moment where people are confronted with a question at 7 00:00:36,360 --> 00:00:40,879 Speaker 1: the heart of this show, how do we as societies 8 00:00:41,120 --> 00:00:45,400 Speaker 1: and as individuals decide what to keep and what to 9 00:00:45,440 --> 00:00:50,120 Speaker 1: throw away? What defines trash varies from person to person. 10 00:00:50,760 --> 00:00:54,520 Speaker 1: It's an activity more than it is a category, so 11 00:00:54,920 --> 00:00:58,080 Speaker 1: it should be understood as a dynamic category rather than 12 00:00:58,120 --> 00:01:02,320 Speaker 1: as the thing or a kind of thing. And my 13 00:01:02,440 --> 00:01:07,680 Speaker 1: name is Susan Strasser. I am the Richards Professor Emerita 14 00:01:07,760 --> 00:01:10,760 Speaker 1: of American History at the University of Delaware, which just 15 00:01:10,880 --> 00:01:14,200 Speaker 1: really means that I'm retired from the University of Delaware. 16 00:01:14,720 --> 00:01:18,120 Speaker 1: And I'm the author of Never Done, a History of 17 00:01:18,120 --> 00:01:23,360 Speaker 1: American Housework. Second book was called Satisfaction Guaranteed, The Making 18 00:01:23,480 --> 00:01:27,640 Speaker 1: of the American mass Market and Waste and Want a 19 00:01:27,720 --> 00:01:32,760 Speaker 1: Social History of Trash. If we were to see the 20 00:01:32,800 --> 00:01:36,560 Speaker 1: way most people in the United States lived before eighteen nine, 21 00:01:37,440 --> 00:01:42,640 Speaker 1: it wouldn't look familiar to us at all. By twenty 22 00:01:42,760 --> 00:01:46,479 Speaker 1: things would look old fashioned to us, certainly, but they 23 00:01:46,520 --> 00:01:51,280 Speaker 1: would look familiar. And what that is about is the 24 00:01:51,400 --> 00:01:58,720 Speaker 1: creation of the mass market, the creation of industrial products 25 00:01:58,800 --> 00:02:05,000 Speaker 1: that per meated domestic life, and that really got fundamentally 26 00:02:05,160 --> 00:02:10,239 Speaker 1: transformed during those decades around the turn of the twentieth century, 27 00:02:12,280 --> 00:02:16,640 Speaker 1: people related to material goods in very, very different ways. 28 00:02:16,760 --> 00:02:22,840 Speaker 1: The likelihood was that almost everything that you wore, or 29 00:02:23,400 --> 00:02:28,960 Speaker 1: eight or sat on were created by yourself, or by 30 00:02:29,080 --> 00:02:32,080 Speaker 1: somebody in your family, or by somebody that you knew. 31 00:02:34,080 --> 00:02:38,280 Speaker 1: Soap and candles were industrialized pretty early in the cities, 32 00:02:38,320 --> 00:02:42,600 Speaker 1: but they were not necessarily industrialized in the country because 33 00:02:42,639 --> 00:02:46,760 Speaker 1: they were made of leftover materials. You make soap from ashes, 34 00:02:47,160 --> 00:02:52,600 Speaker 1: the ashes make lie, and from spare fat. When you're butchering, 35 00:02:52,880 --> 00:02:59,800 Speaker 1: you're gonna have spare fat to use. Bottles were very valuable. 36 00:03:00,160 --> 00:03:05,880 Speaker 1: Commercial glass manufacturer was pretty slow compared to other industries, 37 00:03:06,360 --> 00:03:13,480 Speaker 1: so bottles were refilled. Housekeeping manuals advised people when they're 38 00:03:13,480 --> 00:03:17,080 Speaker 1: clearing the table to check and see what can be 39 00:03:17,160 --> 00:03:19,919 Speaker 1: eaten again. And there was not a lot of shame 40 00:03:19,960 --> 00:03:24,600 Speaker 1: apparently involved in taking things off people's plates and keeping 41 00:03:24,600 --> 00:03:31,200 Speaker 1: it to feed people later, and across the social hierarchy, 42 00:03:31,520 --> 00:03:42,720 Speaker 1: people knew how to sew. Rich women sewed, poor women sewed, 43 00:03:43,120 --> 00:03:47,320 Speaker 1: middle class women sewed, All women sewed. If you could 44 00:03:47,360 --> 00:03:52,000 Speaker 1: afford to, you might hire somebody to make your fancy 45 00:03:52,120 --> 00:03:59,440 Speaker 1: dresses or your coat, But even wealthy women sewed their 46 00:04:00,040 --> 00:04:08,080 Speaker 1: underwhere their nightgowns, kids clothes. The idea that you just 47 00:04:08,160 --> 00:04:11,440 Speaker 1: get rid of things when they're torn, or when they're broken, 48 00:04:11,520 --> 00:04:14,840 Speaker 1: or when they're dirty was just unknown, and that was 49 00:04:14,960 --> 00:04:19,640 Speaker 1: partly because people understood the value of the labor that 50 00:04:19,680 --> 00:04:24,880 Speaker 1: went into making them. This is at a point before 51 00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:27,680 Speaker 1: there were very many general stores, and even if there 52 00:04:27,680 --> 00:04:30,560 Speaker 1: were general stores, how do you get to the general store. 53 00:04:31,080 --> 00:04:34,120 Speaker 1: An average farmer might have a horse, but the horses 54 00:04:34,200 --> 00:04:37,239 Speaker 1: working on pulling the plow. The horse is not free 55 00:04:37,320 --> 00:04:41,640 Speaker 1: to go into town because somebody decides that they want something, 56 00:04:42,640 --> 00:04:47,280 Speaker 1: So in a primarily agricultural society, they don't go to town. 57 00:04:48,279 --> 00:04:52,360 Speaker 1: The way people got stuff was that people came around 58 00:04:52,480 --> 00:04:59,040 Speaker 1: selling stuff, and they came around in the countryside peddler's 59 00:04:59,440 --> 00:05:03,120 Speaker 1: door to door salesman, slipping both new goods and material 60 00:05:03,160 --> 00:05:07,520 Speaker 1: for reuse. We're an integral part of a newly developing economy. 61 00:05:08,800 --> 00:05:12,880 Speaker 1: The kinds of things that the peddlers would carry would 62 00:05:12,880 --> 00:05:17,120 Speaker 1: be just basic things to live with, things to cook with, 63 00:05:17,240 --> 00:05:21,240 Speaker 1: things to build with, little things that we would not 64 00:05:21,360 --> 00:05:26,560 Speaker 1: even think of, sewing pins, hairpins, nails, the kind of 65 00:05:26,560 --> 00:05:30,039 Speaker 1: stuff we would think you would buy in a hardware store. 66 00:05:43,200 --> 00:05:47,599 Speaker 1: There was another kind of peddling that was organized by 67 00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:53,400 Speaker 1: tin manufacturers. Tin was used for small metal goods, stuff 68 00:05:53,440 --> 00:06:01,760 Speaker 1: like funnels, watering cans, and tin manufacturers would organized peddlers 69 00:06:01,839 --> 00:06:05,680 Speaker 1: to go out in the countryside and sell their tin wear. 70 00:06:07,839 --> 00:06:12,679 Speaker 1: All of these people took stuff in trade two either 71 00:06:12,720 --> 00:06:16,480 Speaker 1: sell back to the person who had sold them the tinware, 72 00:06:16,920 --> 00:06:20,960 Speaker 1: or in some cases the tinware manufacturer might have hired someone. 73 00:06:21,760 --> 00:06:25,279 Speaker 1: I had the really great opportunity to look at the 74 00:06:25,279 --> 00:06:30,320 Speaker 1: papers of tin manufacturer, and he was called a master peddler. 75 00:06:30,880 --> 00:06:36,080 Speaker 1: His name was Marillo Noise. My father was a peddler. 76 00:06:36,560 --> 00:06:42,520 Speaker 1: His name he was your no and he hired peddlers 77 00:06:42,560 --> 00:06:47,200 Speaker 1: to sell his tin and to bring stuff back. You 78 00:06:47,360 --> 00:06:51,760 Speaker 1: don't want to do what manufacturers now do, which is 79 00:06:51,800 --> 00:06:55,960 Speaker 1: to pay for stuff to just go one way. So 80 00:06:56,360 --> 00:07:01,560 Speaker 1: Marilla Noise got really interested in what he could collect 81 00:07:01,680 --> 00:07:05,440 Speaker 1: from the households where his peddlers were going that he 82 00:07:05,480 --> 00:07:12,760 Speaker 1: could then sell. And he collected paper, rags, rubber bones, 83 00:07:13,720 --> 00:07:17,400 Speaker 1: and he collected metal. He had these little booklets that 84 00:07:17,440 --> 00:07:20,880 Speaker 1: would fit into his pocket. In those booklets he would 85 00:07:20,920 --> 00:07:24,960 Speaker 1: say things like, oh, so and so told me about 86 00:07:24,960 --> 00:07:29,960 Speaker 1: a manufacturer in New Jersey who's using old leather. So 87 00:07:30,120 --> 00:07:32,960 Speaker 1: then he goes to New Jersey and he visits the 88 00:07:33,040 --> 00:07:36,440 Speaker 1: manufacturer and he finds out what kinds of old leather 89 00:07:37,000 --> 00:07:40,840 Speaker 1: the manufacturer can use and he's using, and then he 90 00:07:40,880 --> 00:07:45,080 Speaker 1: can give his peddlars instructions to be bringing back that 91 00:07:45,160 --> 00:07:50,240 Speaker 1: stuff as well. He would send the peddlers out to 92 00:07:50,920 --> 00:07:53,760 Speaker 1: sell the stuff that he had loaded the wagons with, 93 00:07:54,040 --> 00:07:58,960 Speaker 1: but he also expected them to come back with full cards, 94 00:07:59,040 --> 00:08:03,240 Speaker 1: so that the price of keeping the peddler and the 95 00:08:03,360 --> 00:08:10,480 Speaker 1: horse alive would be distributed over both directions. The expansion 96 00:08:10,480 --> 00:08:15,280 Speaker 1: of peddling signals an important shift in American society towards 97 00:08:15,280 --> 00:08:21,160 Speaker 1: a culture of consumerism. The development of consumer culture requires 98 00:08:21,240 --> 00:08:25,400 Speaker 1: people to come to believe that stuff can come to 99 00:08:25,560 --> 00:08:30,680 Speaker 1: them and that we can get what we want. If 100 00:08:30,720 --> 00:08:35,040 Speaker 1: the peddlers hadn't been able to take stuff back, then 101 00:08:35,080 --> 00:08:38,120 Speaker 1: there wouldn't have been as much peddling, there wouldn't have 102 00:08:38,160 --> 00:08:43,600 Speaker 1: been as much new manufactured stuff out in the countryside. 103 00:08:44,320 --> 00:08:48,480 Speaker 1: It literally brought that system that was a two way 104 00:08:48,520 --> 00:08:55,360 Speaker 1: system and brought things, brought goods, brought stuff into people's lives. 105 00:08:56,760 --> 00:08:59,160 Speaker 1: I feel like I could see the workings of a 106 00:08:59,320 --> 00:09:04,280 Speaker 1: nineteen entree recycling system that so many things that could 107 00:09:04,320 --> 00:09:08,480 Speaker 1: not be used in the household did get sent back 108 00:09:08,520 --> 00:09:13,160 Speaker 1: to factories to be used again to make other things. 109 00:09:13,760 --> 00:09:16,880 Speaker 1: Metal is an obvious thing because it can be melted down. 110 00:09:17,240 --> 00:09:23,720 Speaker 1: But rags, for example, we're used in papermaking. Before the Revolution, 111 00:09:24,360 --> 00:09:27,000 Speaker 1: there wasn't a lot of paper made in the United States, 112 00:09:27,960 --> 00:09:31,160 Speaker 1: so there was a lot of energy put into creating 113 00:09:32,000 --> 00:09:38,320 Speaker 1: domestic paper manufacturers and saving rags cotton rags and linen 114 00:09:38,400 --> 00:09:44,120 Speaker 1: rags for making paper. That's recycling, that's making something out 115 00:09:44,160 --> 00:09:49,520 Speaker 1: of something that's previously manufactured. It's really difficult for us 116 00:09:49,559 --> 00:09:57,200 Speaker 1: to imagine the spareness of life. The very idea to 117 00:09:57,800 --> 00:10:01,200 Speaker 1: get a tea kettle, something that will boil your water, 118 00:10:02,040 --> 00:10:06,160 Speaker 1: that's a separate object from the pot you're cooking your 119 00:10:06,200 --> 00:10:11,360 Speaker 1: beans in. Those very ideas were really new for most people, 120 00:10:12,000 --> 00:10:15,960 Speaker 1: especially given that the houses that survived the ones that 121 00:10:16,040 --> 00:10:20,360 Speaker 1: we tour as tourists, or the houses of the most 122 00:10:20,480 --> 00:10:26,320 Speaker 1: fabulously wealthy people in America, even they were sitting in 123 00:10:26,360 --> 00:10:31,640 Speaker 1: the dark at night. Whale oil, which was the major 124 00:10:32,200 --> 00:10:39,080 Speaker 1: source before kerosene, it was expensive. Candles were expensive. There's 125 00:10:39,120 --> 00:10:42,240 Speaker 1: a French saying I've seen it translated in a lot 126 00:10:42,280 --> 00:10:46,079 Speaker 1: of nineteenth century books, about something being not worth the candle. 127 00:10:48,240 --> 00:10:50,520 Speaker 1: Is this book good enough for me to pay for 128 00:10:50,640 --> 00:10:55,080 Speaker 1: the candle that's gonna light my ability to read it? 129 00:10:55,280 --> 00:10:56,960 Speaker 1: Or am I going to put it away and go 130 00:10:57,040 --> 00:11:02,240 Speaker 1: to sleep and maybe look at it tomorrow. Yeah, it's 131 00:11:02,280 --> 00:11:06,360 Speaker 1: not like people were lighting up their lives the way 132 00:11:06,400 --> 00:11:09,760 Speaker 1: we light up our lives. And I think we have 133 00:11:09,840 --> 00:11:14,920 Speaker 1: a hard time imagining just how spare life was for everybody. 134 00:11:22,559 --> 00:11:25,240 Speaker 1: In the late eighteen hundreds, there was a wave of 135 00:11:25,280 --> 00:11:29,960 Speaker 1: migration in the United States away from the countryside and 136 00:11:30,040 --> 00:11:35,960 Speaker 1: towards cities. It became possible to feed the country with 137 00:11:36,080 --> 00:11:42,760 Speaker 1: fewer people and jobs in factories looked attractive, and city 138 00:11:42,840 --> 00:11:46,040 Speaker 1: life looked attractive to a lot of people, and that's 139 00:11:46,080 --> 00:11:51,640 Speaker 1: why they went in the countryside. It's much easier to 140 00:11:52,320 --> 00:11:55,280 Speaker 1: figure out what to do with stuff if you don't 141 00:11:55,280 --> 00:11:59,839 Speaker 1: want it. There's some corner of the farm where you 142 00:12:00,040 --> 00:12:05,840 Speaker 1: can dump things. There's just a lot more ability to 143 00:12:05,960 --> 00:12:08,559 Speaker 1: get rid of stuff, to the extent that you even 144 00:12:08,640 --> 00:12:11,640 Speaker 1: want to get rid of stuff, because there's also more 145 00:12:11,720 --> 00:12:16,280 Speaker 1: ability to use things. The example of making soap is 146 00:12:16,320 --> 00:12:20,200 Speaker 1: a good one in the city. If you're living in 147 00:12:20,240 --> 00:12:24,040 Speaker 1: an apartment, you may have ashes, you may have fat, 148 00:12:24,640 --> 00:12:29,360 Speaker 1: but where are you gonna make soap. You may not 149 00:12:29,520 --> 00:12:33,280 Speaker 1: have the space to use things, and you certainly don't 150 00:12:33,280 --> 00:12:37,480 Speaker 1: have space to dump things. So it becomes more and 151 00:12:37,640 --> 00:12:41,120 Speaker 1: more an issue for people living in cities as to 152 00:12:41,559 --> 00:12:44,120 Speaker 1: what they're gonna do with things that they don't want. 153 00:12:45,160 --> 00:12:50,439 Speaker 1: There's lots of written evidence about people throwing stuff out windows, 154 00:12:50,480 --> 00:12:53,319 Speaker 1: But what are you going to do with things? Vary it, 155 00:12:54,240 --> 00:12:57,440 Speaker 1: burn it, throw it in a ravine if there's a 156 00:12:57,559 --> 00:13:01,120 Speaker 1: ravine nearby, throw it in a body of water. Those 157 00:13:01,200 --> 00:13:06,480 Speaker 1: were the choices. With more people in their trash packed 158 00:13:06,480 --> 00:13:12,640 Speaker 1: together in tighter spaces, came increasing risks of disease. The 159 00:13:12,679 --> 00:13:19,840 Speaker 1: whole question of public health starts to become salient as 160 00:13:20,320 --> 00:13:27,400 Speaker 1: there's this huge series of epidemics yellow fever, cholera in 161 00:13:27,559 --> 00:13:32,200 Speaker 1: city after city throughout the nineteenth century, and people don't 162 00:13:32,360 --> 00:13:35,640 Speaker 1: yet have the germ theory of disease. They don't quite 163 00:13:35,720 --> 00:13:40,720 Speaker 1: yet know about viruses and bacteria, but they do start 164 00:13:40,880 --> 00:13:46,360 Speaker 1: developing an understanding that filth has something to do with disease, 165 00:13:46,600 --> 00:13:49,680 Speaker 1: that bad water has something to do with disease, that 166 00:13:50,440 --> 00:13:54,000 Speaker 1: filth has something to do with bad water. More people 167 00:13:54,040 --> 00:13:59,240 Speaker 1: got sick where people were crowded in that they could 168 00:13:59,280 --> 00:14:03,880 Speaker 1: see They could see it perfectly clearly. In the early 169 00:14:04,000 --> 00:14:09,280 Speaker 1: twentieth century in cities, there were sewers, but there were 170 00:14:09,320 --> 00:14:14,360 Speaker 1: also out houses. There were people living in tenements where 171 00:14:14,880 --> 00:14:20,360 Speaker 1: the one flush toilet would be in the courtyard. Sewers 172 00:14:20,360 --> 00:14:25,520 Speaker 1: and water were the things that created the whole notion 173 00:14:25,600 --> 00:14:29,800 Speaker 1: of what a municipal concern might be about infrastructure and 174 00:14:29,880 --> 00:14:35,200 Speaker 1: about public health. These concerns would be addressed by a 175 00:14:35,240 --> 00:14:39,600 Speaker 1: major advancement that we all too often take for granted today, 176 00:14:40,080 --> 00:14:46,440 Speaker 1: municipal trash collection. What it looked like was those same 177 00:14:46,520 --> 00:14:52,240 Speaker 1: people who had campaign to get sewers and water into 178 00:14:52,320 --> 00:14:58,680 Speaker 1: cities started campaigning to get municipal trash collection. We're talking 179 00:14:58,680 --> 00:15:03,280 Speaker 1: about the nine these in the biggest cities, New York 180 00:15:03,400 --> 00:15:06,440 Speaker 1: because it was the biggest city. The problem was the 181 00:15:06,440 --> 00:15:11,080 Speaker 1: biggest and it kind of led the way in municipal 182 00:15:11,680 --> 00:15:17,040 Speaker 1: services for collecting waste. Now, what they did with the 183 00:15:17,080 --> 00:15:20,200 Speaker 1: trash ones that was collected, we may not have such 184 00:15:20,400 --> 00:15:23,320 Speaker 1: happy feelings about. In New York, it was put on 185 00:15:23,400 --> 00:15:26,040 Speaker 1: barges and taken out into the ocean and dumped in 186 00:15:26,080 --> 00:15:33,080 Speaker 1: the ocean. It was used to create landfill. The ashes, particularly, 187 00:15:33,120 --> 00:15:37,000 Speaker 1: but also other kinds of trash were used for landfill. 188 00:15:39,320 --> 00:15:44,240 Speaker 1: The thing is trashes then and now hard to get 189 00:15:44,320 --> 00:15:48,880 Speaker 1: rid of the most obvious things to do with stuff 190 00:15:48,880 --> 00:15:52,160 Speaker 1: you don't want just to burn it, to bury it, 191 00:15:52,320 --> 00:15:55,240 Speaker 1: or to dump it. Those are the big three that 192 00:15:55,280 --> 00:15:57,720 Speaker 1: you can do on your farm, or you can do 193 00:15:58,160 --> 00:16:00,920 Speaker 1: in a big way in a big city. But if 194 00:16:00,960 --> 00:16:03,960 Speaker 1: you're burning all the trash for a big city, then 195 00:16:04,120 --> 00:16:07,440 Speaker 1: you need some kind of fancy incinerator. You can't just 196 00:16:07,560 --> 00:16:12,200 Speaker 1: do it in the backyard. They were not attractions that 197 00:16:12,320 --> 00:16:17,640 Speaker 1: people wanted to have in their midst So facilities were 198 00:16:17,680 --> 00:16:21,120 Speaker 1: built on the edges of town, and facilities were built 199 00:16:21,280 --> 00:16:27,640 Speaker 1: where people were too poor to effectively complain about the 200 00:16:27,760 --> 00:16:30,960 Speaker 1: hazards to their health. We're here today on a march 201 00:16:31,080 --> 00:16:36,280 Speaker 1: to the Detroit incinerator Um, and we're calling for clean air, 202 00:16:36,640 --> 00:16:39,680 Speaker 1: particularly for the communities that are close to the incenterator 203 00:16:39,680 --> 00:16:42,880 Speaker 1: and are particularly affected by the particular from the burning trash. 204 00:16:43,360 --> 00:16:48,920 Speaker 1: And I should say that in those early municipal household 205 00:16:49,000 --> 00:16:53,400 Speaker 1: trash collections, there was separation of different kinds of trash 206 00:16:53,720 --> 00:16:57,560 Speaker 1: to be used for recycling. The same kinds of things 207 00:16:57,640 --> 00:17:03,480 Speaker 1: that people had been recyclinging for many decades were separated out. 208 00:17:05,640 --> 00:17:08,080 Speaker 1: Do people start thinking about their materials in a different 209 00:17:08,119 --> 00:17:12,240 Speaker 1: way because of trash collection. Once you have a municipal 210 00:17:12,280 --> 00:17:17,800 Speaker 1: trash collection, then throwing something away becomes a possibility. Before 211 00:17:17,960 --> 00:17:21,840 Speaker 1: municipal trash collection, you either store it in your house 212 00:17:21,960 --> 00:17:24,160 Speaker 1: or you somehow or other get it out of your house. 213 00:17:24,200 --> 00:17:25,840 Speaker 1: And if you're going to get it out of your house, 214 00:17:25,920 --> 00:17:28,119 Speaker 1: you have to figure out where out of your house. 215 00:17:28,680 --> 00:17:32,640 Speaker 1: And municipal trash collection gives you a brand new option, 216 00:17:32,720 --> 00:17:36,760 Speaker 1: which is just get rid of it. It makes it 217 00:17:36,800 --> 00:17:41,160 Speaker 1: a black box. Before then you've got to figure out 218 00:17:41,200 --> 00:17:43,280 Speaker 1: what to do with it. And if you're gonna take 219 00:17:43,320 --> 00:17:45,080 Speaker 1: it down to the river and dump it in the river, 220 00:17:45,160 --> 00:17:46,840 Speaker 1: you're going to dump it in the river, and you're 221 00:17:46,880 --> 00:17:51,119 Speaker 1: gonna know that it went in the river. If you 222 00:17:51,160 --> 00:17:53,560 Speaker 1: put it in the can and you take the can 223 00:17:53,600 --> 00:17:56,919 Speaker 1: to the curb. Who knows what happens to it. It's gone. 224 00:17:57,840 --> 00:18:01,040 Speaker 1: There's not the sense of reciprocity about it. There's not 225 00:18:01,200 --> 00:18:04,040 Speaker 1: the bargaining about I mean, when the peddler comes around 226 00:18:04,480 --> 00:18:06,960 Speaker 1: and you've got your bit of rags and your bit 227 00:18:07,000 --> 00:18:09,440 Speaker 1: of rubber and your bit of metal, and you are 228 00:18:09,480 --> 00:18:12,680 Speaker 1: looking at the tea cattle and the pins and some nails, 229 00:18:13,000 --> 00:18:15,520 Speaker 1: there's a whole bargaining process that's going to go on 230 00:18:15,680 --> 00:18:19,359 Speaker 1: between you and the peddler to figure out who gets 231 00:18:19,359 --> 00:18:25,560 Speaker 1: what and what gets exchanged. Once you have municipal trash collection, 232 00:18:26,000 --> 00:18:30,320 Speaker 1: there's no exchange. It's literally about getting rid of stuff. 233 00:18:32,280 --> 00:18:37,600 Speaker 1: These new systems of disposal dovetail not coincidentally with major 234 00:18:37,640 --> 00:18:44,359 Speaker 1: developments and mass manufacturing. It simply became possible to buy 235 00:18:44,440 --> 00:18:47,800 Speaker 1: a lot of stuff that hadn't been possible to buy before. 236 00:18:47,960 --> 00:18:50,560 Speaker 1: And some of it is because there's more and more 237 00:18:50,800 --> 00:18:54,240 Speaker 1: stuff being manufactured in factories, and some of it is 238 00:18:54,280 --> 00:18:58,680 Speaker 1: because there's all kinds of new distribution methods. Even people 239 00:18:58,720 --> 00:19:02,880 Speaker 1: in the countryside can buy things from the Sears catalog 240 00:19:02,960 --> 00:19:05,960 Speaker 1: and the Montgomery Ward catalog and get them shipped to 241 00:19:06,000 --> 00:19:11,600 Speaker 1: their houses. What are you reading these years catalogs. That 242 00:19:11,680 --> 00:19:17,120 Speaker 1: sounds exciting, you'd be surprised. The Post Office actually made 243 00:19:17,119 --> 00:19:20,399 Speaker 1: it possible for things to be shipped to your house 244 00:19:20,480 --> 00:19:23,960 Speaker 1: even if you lived in the country Rural Free Delivery RFD, 245 00:19:24,960 --> 00:19:28,480 Speaker 1: so you didn't have to come into town and pick 246 00:19:28,560 --> 00:19:32,000 Speaker 1: something up at the train station. It would be shipped 247 00:19:32,000 --> 00:19:37,000 Speaker 1: to your house suddenly, and really it was sudden. All 248 00:19:37,040 --> 00:19:42,000 Speaker 1: of the goods of the new manufacturing were available to 249 00:19:42,160 --> 00:19:46,320 Speaker 1: consumers if they used these companies, and they did use 250 00:19:46,359 --> 00:19:49,320 Speaker 1: those companies, and they used those companies for the same 251 00:19:49,400 --> 00:19:54,520 Speaker 1: reasons that people use Amazon, because everything was available and 252 00:19:54,560 --> 00:19:59,760 Speaker 1: it was easy to get. In the nine twenties, lots 253 00:19:59,800 --> 00:20:03,680 Speaker 1: and lots of appliances started to be produced, and many 254 00:20:03,720 --> 00:20:06,760 Speaker 1: of these had been patented earlier, but it wasn't until 255 00:20:06,760 --> 00:20:10,439 Speaker 1: the nineteen twenties and the relative prosperity of the nineteen 256 00:20:10,520 --> 00:20:14,639 Speaker 1: twenties that the large numbers of people started to buy 257 00:20:14,760 --> 00:20:18,800 Speaker 1: these things. At first, it was small appliances, things like 258 00:20:18,880 --> 00:20:22,679 Speaker 1: toasters and irons. By the end of the nineteen twenties, 259 00:20:23,160 --> 00:20:29,600 Speaker 1: refrigerators were available to wealthy people. Everything in its place. 260 00:20:30,119 --> 00:20:34,840 Speaker 1: That's easy with my printed air cold pantry. Even after 261 00:20:34,880 --> 00:20:37,640 Speaker 1: the depression, started. They were sold on the installment plan 262 00:20:37,960 --> 00:20:41,080 Speaker 1: with the promise that you could save money. You could 263 00:20:41,080 --> 00:20:44,920 Speaker 1: buy things on sale and keep them longer in your refrigerator. 264 00:20:45,880 --> 00:20:49,120 Speaker 1: We think of the depression as a time when nobody 265 00:20:49,200 --> 00:20:54,639 Speaker 1: had anything, but if there's a twenty unemployment rate, that 266 00:20:54,680 --> 00:20:59,880 Speaker 1: means of the people have jobs. It's not like more 267 00:21:00,400 --> 00:21:03,440 Speaker 1: people had lots and lots of money, but they did 268 00:21:03,520 --> 00:21:10,560 Speaker 1: have some money, and both refrigerators and radios were appliances 269 00:21:10,800 --> 00:21:16,680 Speaker 1: that became big during the thirties. Another consumer good flooding 270 00:21:16,680 --> 00:21:21,440 Speaker 1: the market in this era was, of course, the automobile. 271 00:21:23,680 --> 00:21:28,800 Speaker 1: Henry Ford, who not only introduced the assembly line and 272 00:21:29,200 --> 00:21:32,679 Speaker 1: a certain new kind of manufacturing in that respect, he 273 00:21:32,800 --> 00:21:36,320 Speaker 1: also introduced a theory of employment that he called the 274 00:21:36,359 --> 00:21:42,440 Speaker 1: five dollar day. He wanted to pay workers well enough 275 00:21:42,520 --> 00:21:46,359 Speaker 1: that they could buy automobiles, but not everybody has a 276 00:21:46,400 --> 00:21:50,280 Speaker 1: million dollars to ride the economy is what they want. 277 00:21:50,960 --> 00:21:54,280 Speaker 1: He envisioned a time when it would not just be 278 00:21:54,480 --> 00:21:59,000 Speaker 1: rich people, and over the course of the twenties, automobiles 279 00:21:59,080 --> 00:22:06,120 Speaker 1: got cheaper and the used automobile market started to develop, 280 00:22:06,560 --> 00:22:09,439 Speaker 1: So by the end of the twenties it's fair to 281 00:22:09,440 --> 00:22:11,639 Speaker 1: say that there are large numbers of people brought in 282 00:22:11,680 --> 00:22:17,959 Speaker 1: cars with this version, and consumer culture came an onslaught 283 00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:23,400 Speaker 1: of disposable goods. At the beginning of the twentieth century, 284 00:22:23,760 --> 00:22:27,840 Speaker 1: paper cups starts to be the first big thing because 285 00:22:27,880 --> 00:22:32,399 Speaker 1: people are out in cities more and they're drinking publicly. 286 00:22:32,960 --> 00:22:35,199 Speaker 1: She knows that dickte cups, they were a lot of 287 00:22:35,320 --> 00:22:39,320 Speaker 1: extra glasses to waste. She knows that dicknecup means there's 288 00:22:39,400 --> 00:22:42,840 Speaker 1: less of breaking glasses. And you know too that drinking 289 00:22:42,840 --> 00:22:46,640 Speaker 1: from a Dicte cup is more sanitary because everyone has 290 00:22:46,680 --> 00:22:52,600 Speaker 1: his own individual cups. Again, there's this concern about public 291 00:22:52,640 --> 00:22:56,760 Speaker 1: health as the germ theory starts to be accepted, So 292 00:22:57,080 --> 00:23:03,080 Speaker 1: there's the introduction of paper cups for sanitary purposes. Other 293 00:23:03,280 --> 00:23:09,359 Speaker 1: kinds of paper goods and disposable goods are being introduced, 294 00:23:09,440 --> 00:23:14,960 Speaker 1: but they're not super popular. They really require a whole 295 00:23:15,080 --> 00:23:20,360 Speaker 1: different mindset. The idea that you have something, you use 296 00:23:20,400 --> 00:23:22,960 Speaker 1: it once, and you throw it away. That's like a 297 00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:26,840 Speaker 1: brand new idea. And there are certain kinds of disposable 298 00:23:26,880 --> 00:23:32,600 Speaker 1: things like bottles, caps and razor blades that we don't 299 00:23:32,640 --> 00:23:37,120 Speaker 1: think of. But starting in the eight nineties, bottle caps 300 00:23:37,280 --> 00:23:43,359 Speaker 1: and razor blades, start to give people the idea that 301 00:23:43,480 --> 00:23:47,320 Speaker 1: this one time used then toss it might be a 302 00:23:47,359 --> 00:23:51,480 Speaker 1: good way to live your life. In a moment of 303 00:23:51,560 --> 00:23:56,959 Speaker 1: changing attitudes around creation and disposal, everything got ratcheted up 304 00:23:57,400 --> 00:24:01,119 Speaker 1: during more time. One of its is to remember about 305 00:24:01,119 --> 00:24:02,960 Speaker 1: World War One is that the United States was not 306 00:24:03,119 --> 00:24:07,080 Speaker 1: in it for very long. The Republic must awaken, the 307 00:24:07,200 --> 00:24:13,679 Speaker 1: people must understand our safety lies in pull realization. The 308 00:24:13,800 --> 00:24:17,199 Speaker 1: faith of the nations and the safety of the world 309 00:24:17,320 --> 00:24:20,919 Speaker 1: will be decided on the western battlefront of Europe. The 310 00:24:20,960 --> 00:24:24,080 Speaker 1: United States didn't get into it until nineteen seventeen, and 311 00:24:24,119 --> 00:24:28,720 Speaker 1: the war was over in nineteen eighteen. They were instituting programs, 312 00:24:28,800 --> 00:24:31,440 Speaker 1: but they never really got a chance to get that far. 313 00:24:32,880 --> 00:24:36,600 Speaker 1: World War two they were full blown. Only men went 314 00:24:36,640 --> 00:24:41,640 Speaker 1: to war, so there was a huge amount of propagandizing 315 00:24:42,119 --> 00:24:47,000 Speaker 1: around various kinds of what we would call recycling drives 316 00:24:47,040 --> 00:24:50,160 Speaker 1: that were called scrap drives at the time. I want 317 00:24:50,200 --> 00:24:54,280 Speaker 1: to report about another great American army and rolling one 318 00:24:54,359 --> 00:24:59,119 Speaker 1: in every four American the Army of organized education, boys 319 00:24:59,119 --> 00:25:02,880 Speaker 1: and girls collect crap to build up our national stockpiles. 320 00:25:04,680 --> 00:25:10,160 Speaker 1: There were school curricula that we're developed if this many 321 00:25:10,240 --> 00:25:13,680 Speaker 1: pots and pans can make this many airplanes, then how 322 00:25:13,720 --> 00:25:17,400 Speaker 1: many part you know that kind of word problem. They 323 00:25:17,720 --> 00:25:24,679 Speaker 1: organized kids in their scout troops to collect materials, and 324 00:25:24,720 --> 00:25:29,040 Speaker 1: they militarized the talking about it. Practically all of us 325 00:25:29,040 --> 00:25:33,840 Speaker 1: have fats. Fats make ncroistans for shows. My father, who 326 00:25:33,880 --> 00:25:36,800 Speaker 1: was a physicist, during World War Two he served as 327 00:25:36,840 --> 00:25:41,359 Speaker 1: an army research facility. He said that he didn't really 328 00:25:41,440 --> 00:25:44,359 Speaker 1: think that the kinds of explosives that the household fats 329 00:25:44,400 --> 00:25:49,320 Speaker 1: could be used for actually were very common kinds of explosives, 330 00:25:49,359 --> 00:25:52,359 Speaker 1: so he, even during the war, thought that that fat 331 00:25:52,400 --> 00:25:56,760 Speaker 1: collection thing was mostly for propaganda purposes. More than a 332 00:25:56,800 --> 00:26:00,359 Speaker 1: million people are crowded into Washington in wartime, say, with 333 00:26:00,400 --> 00:26:03,440 Speaker 1: a peacetime population of half a million. The city was 334 00:26:03,520 --> 00:26:06,400 Speaker 1: never planned to accommodate such a huge, ever growing army 335 00:26:06,400 --> 00:26:10,719 Speaker 1: of workers. But Washington in wartime is people, people intent 336 00:26:10,840 --> 00:26:14,840 Speaker 1: on contributing their personal effort, people seeking information and advice 337 00:26:15,119 --> 00:26:18,960 Speaker 1: and sometimes papers others to see history in the making. 338 00:26:22,080 --> 00:26:25,520 Speaker 1: It was a way of mobilizing the whole population to 339 00:26:25,640 --> 00:26:29,320 Speaker 1: be behind the war effort as much as it was 340 00:26:29,440 --> 00:26:32,480 Speaker 1: a way of collecting materials that could be used to 341 00:26:32,600 --> 00:26:37,480 Speaker 1: advance the war effort. You couldn't buy a new washing 342 00:26:37,520 --> 00:26:41,680 Speaker 1: machine or a new car during the war because the 343 00:26:41,720 --> 00:26:45,879 Speaker 1: factories that produced washing machines and cars had been converted 344 00:26:45,920 --> 00:26:52,359 Speaker 1: for war production. So people were experiencing these kinds of shortages. 345 00:26:52,440 --> 00:26:56,679 Speaker 1: And this was after ten years of depression. So now 346 00:26:57,040 --> 00:27:00,359 Speaker 1: people have money. They have money because they're working in 347 00:27:00,440 --> 00:27:04,240 Speaker 1: the war factories. The economy is amped up, but there's 348 00:27:04,359 --> 00:27:07,879 Speaker 1: not stuff to buy, and the propaganda is saying you 349 00:27:07,920 --> 00:27:10,960 Speaker 1: should buy war bonds. The presidents now have the added 350 00:27:10,960 --> 00:27:13,600 Speaker 1: burden of printing billions of dollars worth of war bonds 351 00:27:13,600 --> 00:27:16,560 Speaker 1: and steps to pay for the planes, hips and guns 352 00:27:16,560 --> 00:27:20,040 Speaker 1: that our defenders must have. Your husband's and your brothers 353 00:27:20,080 --> 00:27:23,640 Speaker 1: and your uncle's are off there in Germany and Japan 354 00:27:23,760 --> 00:27:26,440 Speaker 1: and doing their part, and you've got to do your part. 355 00:27:26,600 --> 00:27:30,840 Speaker 1: And your part is to not buy stuff and give 356 00:27:30,960 --> 00:27:34,399 Speaker 1: your medal to the government and not complain about it. 357 00:27:34,840 --> 00:27:38,920 Speaker 1: Saving is as easy as squandering. You'll give us the scrap. 358 00:27:40,280 --> 00:27:43,000 Speaker 1: We will turn it into tanks, we will turn it 359 00:27:43,040 --> 00:27:48,600 Speaker 1: into plane we'll turn it into jeeps, we'll turn it 360 00:27:48,640 --> 00:27:52,280 Speaker 1: into guns. Then our fighting men will have enough and 361 00:27:52,480 --> 00:28:10,480 Speaker 1: on time. The American consumer economy brought with it a 362 00:28:10,520 --> 00:28:18,199 Speaker 1: new buzzword, convenience. The twentie century promises life is going 363 00:28:18,240 --> 00:28:21,320 Speaker 1: to be easy for everybody. When we think about it, 364 00:28:21,320 --> 00:28:25,560 Speaker 1: it's really about the physical body. We shouldn't have to 365 00:28:25,680 --> 00:28:28,760 Speaker 1: work very hard, we shouldn't have to use our muscles 366 00:28:28,880 --> 00:28:32,760 Speaker 1: very much. We should live like the kings and queens 367 00:28:32,800 --> 00:28:37,440 Speaker 1: of old. That's what convenience is about. We should be 368 00:28:37,520 --> 00:28:44,640 Speaker 1: able to exchange money for this feature of goods that 369 00:28:45,120 --> 00:28:49,640 Speaker 1: will make our lives easy. The products are going to 370 00:28:49,720 --> 00:28:53,640 Speaker 1: make it that way, and disposable products are particularly going 371 00:28:53,720 --> 00:28:57,040 Speaker 1: to make it that way. If something is disposable, you 372 00:28:57,120 --> 00:28:59,600 Speaker 1: don't have to wash it, you don't have to clean it, 373 00:28:59,800 --> 00:29:02,840 Speaker 1: you don't have to worry about it. You can toss 374 00:29:02,880 --> 00:29:06,200 Speaker 1: it away. Where is a way? Nobody knows where a 375 00:29:06,240 --> 00:29:10,760 Speaker 1: way is. A big part of this shift in thinking 376 00:29:11,440 --> 00:29:18,080 Speaker 1: was demonstrated and how manufacturers began packaging their products. Manufacturers 377 00:29:18,120 --> 00:29:23,040 Speaker 1: stop selling you a thing, and they start selling a 378 00:29:23,200 --> 00:29:28,520 Speaker 1: new kind of product, which is that thing in its package. 379 00:29:29,240 --> 00:29:34,320 Speaker 1: From their standpoint, the advantage of selling ivory soap in 380 00:29:34,400 --> 00:29:38,160 Speaker 1: a wrapper is that you can write ivory on the 381 00:29:38,240 --> 00:29:41,240 Speaker 1: outside of it, and then the consumer is going to 382 00:29:41,280 --> 00:29:45,040 Speaker 1: go to the store and ask for Ivory soap, and 383 00:29:45,240 --> 00:29:48,480 Speaker 1: the retailer has to get it from Procter and Gamble, 384 00:29:49,040 --> 00:29:52,800 Speaker 1: especially when it comes to personal size. Ivory so white 385 00:29:53,400 --> 00:29:58,360 Speaker 1: looks pure, even smell pure, my pleasure loving side a 386 00:29:58,600 --> 00:30:02,920 Speaker 1: door did in the bath. So that's the reason why 387 00:30:02,960 --> 00:30:08,080 Speaker 1: that new kind of product comes into being, because the 388 00:30:08,160 --> 00:30:11,120 Speaker 1: product in a package can be branded, and the product 389 00:30:11,160 --> 00:30:16,720 Speaker 1: outside of a package cannot be branded. Woven into these 390 00:30:16,760 --> 00:30:23,000 Speaker 1: trends was the concept of fashion, fashion and material goods 391 00:30:23,640 --> 00:30:28,480 Speaker 1: suggests that there's something beyond the way that the product 392 00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:32,840 Speaker 1: does its job that you should be paying attention to. 393 00:30:35,160 --> 00:30:39,400 Speaker 1: Luxury is a warm towel gently touching your skin, making 394 00:30:39,440 --> 00:30:45,160 Speaker 1: you feel soft, special, even a little bit spoiled. There's 395 00:30:45,200 --> 00:30:49,520 Speaker 1: a lot of introduction of things that used to be 396 00:30:49,560 --> 00:30:53,080 Speaker 1: available in black or in white, and now they're available 397 00:30:53,120 --> 00:30:55,840 Speaker 1: in color. No longer do you have to have just 398 00:30:55,960 --> 00:30:58,760 Speaker 1: white towels. Now you can have towels and a whole 399 00:30:58,840 --> 00:31:01,760 Speaker 1: lot of different colors. And it may be the fashion 400 00:31:01,880 --> 00:31:06,040 Speaker 1: this year to have blue towels. So it becomes a 401 00:31:06,080 --> 00:31:10,520 Speaker 1: way of selling more goods by making things that are 402 00:31:10,760 --> 00:31:16,680 Speaker 1: not yet rags, but they're out of fashion, they're no 403 00:31:16,800 --> 00:31:26,080 Speaker 1: longer good see these two portable radios, Well watch this letter. Sorry, Brandy, 404 00:31:26,280 --> 00:31:30,240 Speaker 1: you old file portable to have to go, But look 405 00:31:30,280 --> 00:31:35,360 Speaker 1: at our new r C A Victor portable radio tangled 406 00:31:35,400 --> 00:31:38,600 Speaker 1: up with fashion is a term you hear a lot today. 407 00:31:39,080 --> 00:31:44,200 Speaker 1: Obsolescence the idea that the product, for various reasons is 408 00:31:44,240 --> 00:31:50,440 Speaker 1: destined to become obsolete. The idea that obsolescence is baked 409 00:31:50,480 --> 00:31:53,520 Speaker 1: into the product really comes from all of us living 410 00:31:53,600 --> 00:31:59,160 Speaker 1: lives that are surrounded by products of technological processes that 411 00:31:59,200 --> 00:32:03,440 Speaker 1: are beyond on what we can understand. Phones when they 412 00:32:03,480 --> 00:32:08,400 Speaker 1: were originally introduced, were made to last. Then Bell Systems 413 00:32:08,440 --> 00:32:15,400 Speaker 1: started introducing fashion phones and different princess phones, different kinds 414 00:32:15,400 --> 00:32:22,800 Speaker 1: of phones. Now there's this proliferation of options, and it's 415 00:32:22,840 --> 00:32:28,360 Speaker 1: possible to understand that you have a funky old phone 416 00:32:28,520 --> 00:32:31,960 Speaker 1: or you have the newest and fanciest phone. There's such 417 00:32:32,000 --> 00:32:36,800 Speaker 1: a range of phone possibilities that literally didn't used to exist. 418 00:32:39,240 --> 00:32:42,960 Speaker 1: Contrary to what you might imagine, not every manufacturer was 419 00:32:43,040 --> 00:32:46,680 Speaker 1: greedily rubbing their hands behind the idea of planned obsolescence. 420 00:32:47,960 --> 00:32:54,240 Speaker 1: Henry Ford was really opposed to the notion of changing models. 421 00:32:54,800 --> 00:32:59,440 Speaker 1: To change the model of an automobile requires changing the 422 00:32:59,480 --> 00:33:03,480 Speaker 1: whole auction process. Every change is going to mean a 423 00:33:03,640 --> 00:33:07,000 Speaker 1: change not just in what gets sold, but a change 424 00:33:07,040 --> 00:33:10,680 Speaker 1: in how it's made. So General Motors gets this idea 425 00:33:10,880 --> 00:33:14,800 Speaker 1: of having an annual model change. That new model can 426 00:33:14,840 --> 00:33:19,479 Speaker 1: be advertised and people can get excited about the new model. 427 00:33:20,560 --> 00:33:24,280 Speaker 1: There he comes now and his very old mobile. It's 428 00:33:24,280 --> 00:33:28,200 Speaker 1: a futuramic Goals mobile with the newest push button features, 429 00:33:28,480 --> 00:33:33,640 Speaker 1: automatic windows, automatic top, just pull a handy control and 430 00:33:33,760 --> 00:33:37,400 Speaker 1: before you've had time to admire the smooth, blowing futuramic 431 00:33:37,480 --> 00:33:41,240 Speaker 1: lines of this real post War Olds mobile, the top 432 00:33:41,360 --> 00:33:45,800 Speaker 1: is down automatically. And furthermore, they start producing cars in 433 00:33:45,920 --> 00:33:50,760 Speaker 1: colors and Ford is just still chugging along, producing a 434 00:33:50,840 --> 00:33:54,280 Speaker 1: Model T that gets technologically better. As the years go 435 00:33:54,360 --> 00:34:00,000 Speaker 1: on and Ford starts losing market share and General Motors 436 00:34:00,120 --> 00:34:04,080 Speaker 1: is gaining it. By the end of the nineteen twenties, 437 00:34:04,360 --> 00:34:08,480 Speaker 1: Ford realizes he can no longer do this, and he 438 00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:14,000 Speaker 1: closed down his auto plants to produce the new model 439 00:34:14,040 --> 00:34:17,960 Speaker 1: A Ford. Now he's producing in color, and he's got 440 00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:22,000 Speaker 1: several different models, and it becomes the model for everything 441 00:34:22,040 --> 00:34:26,360 Speaker 1: else too. When is Apple going to reveal its new 442 00:34:26,480 --> 00:34:30,480 Speaker 1: computers and it's new iPhone, there's like all this hub 443 00:34:30,520 --> 00:34:36,759 Speaker 1: around the introduction of all the new stuff. One of 444 00:34:36,760 --> 00:34:40,120 Speaker 1: the biggest takeaways from Waste and Want, Susan's book on 445 00:34:40,120 --> 00:34:44,600 Speaker 1: the History of trash is that all of this production, consumption, 446 00:34:44,960 --> 00:34:52,000 Speaker 1: and disposal is inextricably connected. You can't separate trash in 447 00:34:52,080 --> 00:34:58,480 Speaker 1: a consumer culture from the production process, from the distribution process. 448 00:34:58,480 --> 00:35:03,600 Speaker 1: It's all of a piece. My major interest is in 449 00:35:03,880 --> 00:35:08,560 Speaker 1: the relationship that we in our private lives have with 450 00:35:08,680 --> 00:35:15,760 Speaker 1: the economic system and the production system, and the advertising 451 00:35:15,840 --> 00:35:18,719 Speaker 1: and marketing systems. And now there's a new camera by 452 00:35:18,760 --> 00:35:20,560 Speaker 1: Code Act. It's just the nicest one I know to 453 00:35:20,640 --> 00:35:24,799 Speaker 1: have around the house. And the distribution system and the 454 00:35:24,920 --> 00:35:30,600 Speaker 1: system is not just about the parts that we see. 455 00:35:31,680 --> 00:35:34,320 Speaker 1: In the same way that we don't see what happens 456 00:35:34,440 --> 00:35:40,640 Speaker 1: to our trash after it goes away, we also don't 457 00:35:40,680 --> 00:35:44,480 Speaker 1: see where our stuff came from before it got to 458 00:35:44,520 --> 00:35:49,360 Speaker 1: the store or to the website. It's not like we're 459 00:35:49,480 --> 00:35:55,479 Speaker 1: incapable of starting to imagine that the stuff we use 460 00:35:55,840 --> 00:36:00,279 Speaker 1: gets produced. We kind of know it, But the whole 461 00:36:00,320 --> 00:36:03,640 Speaker 1: business of production, unless we happen to know people who 462 00:36:03,719 --> 00:36:06,799 Speaker 1: work in the factory, it's like a black box to us. 463 00:36:06,880 --> 00:36:10,719 Speaker 1: It's like something we just don't know about. On the 464 00:36:10,760 --> 00:36:14,960 Speaker 1: other end, once we take it to the curb, we 465 00:36:15,080 --> 00:36:17,440 Speaker 1: see the guys come by, we see them put it 466 00:36:17,480 --> 00:36:21,000 Speaker 1: in that truck, and then what happens. We don't know 467 00:36:21,920 --> 00:36:27,120 Speaker 1: it's gone. So stuff comes, stuff goes. Do we make 468 00:36:27,320 --> 00:36:31,040 Speaker 1: more trash now than we used to? Certainly we must 469 00:36:31,080 --> 00:36:35,040 Speaker 1: write we make much more trash than we used to, 470 00:36:35,680 --> 00:36:40,360 Speaker 1: the whole world of packaging and disposals for starters, But 471 00:36:40,440 --> 00:36:46,200 Speaker 1: also we have so many more technologically complicated goods in 472 00:36:46,239 --> 00:36:53,680 Speaker 1: our lives. Appliances, communications, things, computers, phones, all of that stuff. 473 00:36:54,800 --> 00:37:00,200 Speaker 1: What happens to our trash now? It varies from place 474 00:37:00,280 --> 00:37:05,279 Speaker 1: to place. Baltimore has a big incinerator that is a 475 00:37:05,320 --> 00:37:12,400 Speaker 1: waste to energy incinerator. Landfills are becoming problematic in the 476 00:37:12,520 --> 00:37:17,000 Speaker 1: United States because there isn't space for them without places 477 00:37:17,040 --> 00:37:21,320 Speaker 1: that are close to the largest metropolitan areas, So the 478 00:37:21,520 --> 00:37:24,400 Speaker 1: stuff has to be shipped long distances to get to 479 00:37:24,520 --> 00:37:29,759 Speaker 1: places where there are landfill facilities. Literally, what happens to 480 00:37:29,840 --> 00:37:34,080 Speaker 1: stuff depends on where you are in the time leading 481 00:37:34,160 --> 00:37:38,040 Speaker 1: up to writing this book, What were the attitudes conversations 482 00:37:38,160 --> 00:37:41,560 Speaker 1: about trash and the environment? You sort of remember in 483 00:37:41,640 --> 00:37:46,520 Speaker 1: your site, guys, trash is kind of a foreboting topic. 484 00:37:47,200 --> 00:37:49,759 Speaker 1: When I first told people I was writing a book 485 00:37:49,760 --> 00:37:53,880 Speaker 1: about trash, most of them laughed, and people still laugh. 486 00:37:54,480 --> 00:37:58,440 Speaker 1: It's a little hard for me to feel that my 487 00:37:58,520 --> 00:38:02,799 Speaker 1: life's work is so funny, But I think that it's 488 00:38:03,000 --> 00:38:10,120 Speaker 1: precisely my life's work to take these issues of daily 489 00:38:10,200 --> 00:38:17,440 Speaker 1: life that are regarded as private and as trivial and 490 00:38:18,040 --> 00:38:22,600 Speaker 1: bring them out into the light and examine them in 491 00:38:22,760 --> 00:38:27,520 Speaker 1: ways that help people to understand that they're not private 492 00:38:27,560 --> 00:38:33,440 Speaker 1: at all, and that therefore, by definition, they are not trivial. 493 00:38:35,719 --> 00:38:39,320 Speaker 1: My only other question, it's just about hope. Like sometimes 494 00:38:39,560 --> 00:38:41,120 Speaker 1: you've walked down the street, you look at all the 495 00:38:41,120 --> 00:38:43,120 Speaker 1: trash everywhere, at least I live in a city, you know, 496 00:38:43,280 --> 00:38:47,240 Speaker 1: like it's full of track, it's real trashy, overflowing trash cans, 497 00:38:47,600 --> 00:38:52,520 Speaker 1: litter everywhere, under bridges in streets. And then also like 498 00:38:52,680 --> 00:38:55,719 Speaker 1: just being in the time in place that I grew up, 499 00:38:55,719 --> 00:38:58,760 Speaker 1: and just position in the middle of this consumer world 500 00:38:58,760 --> 00:39:01,360 Speaker 1: where I feel like I'm being Everything is branded and 501 00:39:01,400 --> 00:39:03,880 Speaker 1: I'm being sold to all the time, and I'm always 502 00:39:03,880 --> 00:39:06,520 Speaker 1: being told that I need new products and different products. 503 00:39:06,640 --> 00:39:09,000 Speaker 1: And then I got to change this product for that product. 504 00:39:09,440 --> 00:39:14,160 Speaker 1: It can feel like overwhelming and I don't know you're responsible. 505 00:39:14,880 --> 00:39:19,080 Speaker 1: What do you use to not feel hopeless in that situation? 506 00:39:19,239 --> 00:39:23,520 Speaker 1: Like what grounds you to uh make smart decisions about 507 00:39:23,560 --> 00:39:29,600 Speaker 1: consumption and waste. The study of history, it's sort of 508 00:39:29,640 --> 00:39:32,600 Speaker 1: like traveling. You go to a foreign country and you 509 00:39:32,719 --> 00:39:35,560 Speaker 1: discovered that there are other ways to be human. And 510 00:39:35,640 --> 00:39:37,560 Speaker 1: I feel that way about the study of the past 511 00:39:37,719 --> 00:39:41,840 Speaker 1: as well, that there are other ways to be human 512 00:39:41,920 --> 00:39:45,480 Speaker 1: than the ways that we live in the twenty one century. 513 00:39:45,760 --> 00:39:51,920 Speaker 1: And frankly, the environmental issues that go way beyond climate change, 514 00:39:51,960 --> 00:39:55,040 Speaker 1: that have to do with pollution of various kinds, that 515 00:39:55,160 --> 00:39:58,719 Speaker 1: have to do with the eradication of so many species. 516 00:39:59,320 --> 00:40:02,719 Speaker 1: We have to find other ways of being human than 517 00:40:03,040 --> 00:40:06,760 Speaker 1: the ways that we have because this one isn't working. 518 00:40:07,000 --> 00:40:09,880 Speaker 1: This one is destroying the planet that we live on. 519 00:40:10,160 --> 00:40:14,399 Speaker 1: This one is eating our launch. We're not going to 520 00:40:14,560 --> 00:40:17,160 Speaker 1: go backwards in time. We're not going to live the 521 00:40:17,200 --> 00:40:20,200 Speaker 1: way people did in the nineteenth century. We don't want to, 522 00:40:20,560 --> 00:40:24,480 Speaker 1: and we have been raised in the first centuries. Can't 523 00:40:24,840 --> 00:40:27,920 Speaker 1: We don't know how. But for me, the study of 524 00:40:27,960 --> 00:40:31,799 Speaker 1: the past suggests that there will be other ways to 525 00:40:31,840 --> 00:40:38,800 Speaker 1: be human in the future. This episode of Ephemeral was 526 00:40:38,840 --> 00:40:43,160 Speaker 1: written and assembled by Max and Alex Williams, with producer 527 00:40:43,239 --> 00:40:47,360 Speaker 1: Trevor Young, and special thanks to our friend Sarah Wasserman. 528 00:40:48,280 --> 00:40:52,240 Speaker 1: Susan Strasser is the author of Never Done, a History 529 00:40:52,239 --> 00:40:57,280 Speaker 1: of American Housework, Satisfaction Guaranteed, The Making of the American 530 00:40:57,360 --> 00:41:02,600 Speaker 1: mass Market, and Ways and Want a Social History of Trash. 531 00:41:03,440 --> 00:41:06,760 Speaker 1: Find them wherever books are sold and learn more about 532 00:41:06,800 --> 00:41:10,960 Speaker 1: everything she's up to over at susan strasser dot Net, 533 00:41:11,719 --> 00:41:16,719 Speaker 1: links and more on our website ephemeral dot Show. If 534 00:41:16,760 --> 00:41:19,719 Speaker 1: you like this episode, share it with a friend, rate 535 00:41:19,760 --> 00:41:22,200 Speaker 1: and review us wherever you listen, and shoot us a 536 00:41:22,280 --> 00:41:26,800 Speaker 1: comment on social media at ephemeral Show. It just maybe 537 00:41:26,800 --> 00:41:29,520 Speaker 1: the thing that keeps us from getting thrown in the 538 00:41:29,560 --> 00:41:33,600 Speaker 1: trash and For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit 539 00:41:33,640 --> 00:41:37,279 Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you 540 00:41:37,320 --> 00:41:38,680 Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.