Edward Humes GArbology -Chapter 8

In this chapter we were introduced to Bill Rathje an archeologist who was specialized in the study of ancient Mayas ruins. He created the Garbage Project a study that analyzes trash garbage. He is the first garbologist that with his archeological tools and techniques help to understand the civilization of Americans from its garbage(163). Through his methods he developed a new language to identify pieces of trash from the landfills to discover what was it before. In this chapter is also mentioned that when the students study the trash from the rich and the poor neighborhoods they thought that poor areas will produce less trash because of the difference of the economy but instead the result were surprising because they produced almost the same amount of trash. Well, in the other hand this study also demonstrated that consumers purchased more food when shortages occurred because they were buying more things they were not normally buy(165). It was surprising that with the trash we disposed others could know a lot from us like Rathje did during his project. I was astonish when he could help the government to calculate the number of households when they were having trouble with the Census and how he did it? Well all by the trash. He could determine how many women and babies even the age based on the trash they threw away. Well like its mention before trash and our consumption really says a lot about us.