Garbology | William Rathje Talkin’ Trash

Science will take you to strange and wonderful places

And sometimes it will bring you to some real, actual dumps. Archaelogist William Rathje directed the University of Arizona’s Garbage Project. Their group explored the contents of landfills to draw conclusions about American lifestyles. The discipline is referred to as Garbology and the results showed people’s ideas about what they were consuming did not always equate with the trash they were disposing. This segment was an excerpt from “Talkin’ Trash & Recycling” episode of Brainstorm – a “fun with science” television show directed, produced and edited by Paint It Black TV’s David Routt.