Gregg Segal's "7 Days of Garbage"

Garbage can tend to gross out most people... except maybe garbagologists.  Even the most avid of recyclers or composters can tend to get a lost of waste at the end of the day...not to mention the end of the week!

Artist Gregg Segal takes a photo-approach to analyzing a week's worth of waste.  Given the average American makes approximately 4 pounds of trash per day, multiply that out by 7 days, and the number of people in your family.  That's a lot of landfill-fodder.  His visuals are certainly eye-opening... and for anyone with an active imagination, you can't help but wonder about the odor!

But I think for me, who is always analyzing the overuse of plastic that abounds in our society, the pictures make an interesting survey of how much disposable plastic there is.  Much like the hotel plastic-wrapped plastic cups or the plastic-wrapped apples I've seen.  Is all of this even necessary?  And, is it all even recyclable?  Is this a good use for our depleting petroleum supply?  I think visuals like this really can make you sit and wonder about the whys, ponder about the pollution, and rethink what it is we are all doing.  Clearly, from Gregg Segal's photos, what we are doing is trashing the planet.

Kudos to Mr. Segal for helping us look at things in a new way and puzzle about why we are doing this to ourselves!!  To view his whole collection, visit it at the 2014 Fence Website (& there, learn more about the 1,000 foot outdoor photo installation in Boston, the Brooklyn Bridge Park, & Atlanta through October 2014).


Photos from the Slate article "Mesmerizing Photos of People Lying in a Week's Worth of Their Trash" by Jordan G. Teicher. http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2014/07/08/gregg_segal_photographs_people_with_a_week_s_worth_of_their_trash_in_his.html