Trash, so often taken for granted, is an incredibly powerful, vast collection of the remnants of everyday human life. But because such a large percentage of it will never simply disappear, both individuals and municipal entities must collectively develop resourceful new ways of transforming into something else. The very definition of garbage-that it is unwanted, often toxic and no longer useful-makes it difficult to conceptualize that it can and often does have a second life cycle. Recycling is one of the more obvious ways that we deal with trash, but there is much more to recycling than simply sorting paper, plastics and metals. The slogan “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” means many things to many people, and necessitates creative practical application on in order to positively impact the way the public thinks about trash and the way it is managed.
Benjamin Miller’s book, Fat of the Land, documents just how much of the current political, economic and geographic landscape of New York City was directly impacted by the need to manage and dispose of garbage. Over time, the New York City Department of Sanitation has evolved itself into a machine, literally and figuratively, that effectively and efficiently removes enormous amounts of waste from the streets of New York City. An photograph from the Department of an incinerator from the early 1900’s is a powerful reminder of the centrality of the concept of recycling and creating something usable out of waste that has existed for just over a century. As recycling has evolved over the years as both a necessity for trash removal and as a net benefit for environmental conservation, the Department has had to develop ways to get the public to comply. By using simple language and images, as with the recycling refrigerator magnet entitled “With your help, it’s all falling into place,” the Department has made the process of home and even commercial recycling relatively user-friendly while implicating the individual as a key player in shaping the future of waste. This implication, though, has been interpreted in both positive and negative ways.
In reference to an “e-cycling” event hosted by the New York City Department of Sanitation and Dell Computers, Deputy Director of Recycling Samantha McBride states, “But even if e-cycling is done under safe labor conditions in the USA, the molecular danger within the computers is just postponed, not eliminated. This is all recycling is.”(1) Though she is an insider and her viewpoint is seemingly cynical, it is perhaps representative of a broader trend: a public that, while mandated to recycle, is at heart skeptical about how much good recycling actually does. Yet the Department continues to put a positive spin on recycling in most all of the materials it disseminates about recycling. As with the refrigerator magnet that illustrates how to recycle, a Department-created poster that is meant for office spaces depicts cartoon character individuals from various professions happily “doing their part” to recycle. The tension between image and reality is also one that transcends the Department and its iconography when it comes to recycling. Artists and participants in progressive mini-societies have also turned their very lifestyles into statements about waste and recycling, and the larger problem of living in a consumer-based world.
The New York City Department of Sanitation has embraced Mierle Ukeles and her work as both artist and advocate. Yet the phenomenon of incorporating and making art out of trash has been commonplace for several decades. While Mierle’s work has had a direct and positive impact on the way “outsiders” view trash and the Department itself, the work of other artists runs the gamut from being art for art’s sake (and the euphemization of trash as “found objects”) to being art that is about something, trash-related or not. Local artist Nate Hill, a native of Brooklyn, rummages through garbage to find discarded animal parts, which he then uses to reconstitute “new” animals as art pieces. Well-known graffiti artists like Revs incorporate scrap metal and other industrial discards into their pieces. What’s more is that there is a market for this kind of art, in the contemporary art world. This shift in mindset, that day-to-day garbage and commercial discards can be re-made into aesthetic commodities, will hopefully permeate other sectors of society beyond the creative. Though the question of how much good recycling and reusing does in the end will likely not be resolved in the near future, it is essential to continue to change minds and practices with respect to trash.
References:
(1) McBride, Samantha. “The Immorality of Waste,” p. 6. Presentation to “Making a Museum”
class, Wedneday, October 10, 2007.