91011.6- What a Load of Rubbish (West Auckland) Cache In Trash Out® Event

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Hidden : Sunday, October 9, 2011
Difficulty:
2.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: not chosen (not chosen)

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Geocache Description:

Objective: Pick up some rubbish.
Time: From 1 pm
Date: 9-10-11



WE ARE WHAT WE THROW AWAY. Anthropology is called the science of humankind. It studies all facets of society and culture. These studies include tools, techniques, traditions, language, beliefs, values, and the impact of humans on other humans. It is the study of humans, past and present.

Archaeologists learn from the past through studying artifacts, and often these objects are found at sites where past civilizations have discarded materials. Bones and tools are found where ancient hunting parties have left their waste, tax returns have been found with pots in studies of discards sites in Babylon and clues about the everyday life of Mayan civilizations can be pieced together by discovering ancient garbage.

Garbage can tell much about ancient civilizations but also about man today. The study of anthropology can help us discover patterns of behaviours. Certainly we should be looking at the pattern in many “great but now fallen” civilizations that began with abundant resources followed by population growth and over-consumption with faulty or lack of infrastructure to manage population and over-consumption leading to the collapse of the societies. We may not want to be so actively repeating mistakes.

Our garbage is a wealth of information about our society. Since 1973, the University of Arizona, has been studying contemporary garbage as part of its archeology program. William Rathje established THE GARBAGE PROJECT, and in the decades this project has been operating these researchers have hand sorted, measured and sifted through tons of garbage at landfill sites located across North America including Toronto and sites in the Florida everglades and the deserts in California. They have also studies and sampled garbage from residential cans. This research included hand sorting, measuring and cataloguing types of garbage, brands and packaging, as well as interviews with households on behaviours and attitudes.

The results produced from this research have been both thought-provoking and at times controversial. There are a great many assumptions made about garbage without the data to back it up. For instance locally, our solid waste reviews do not use waste audits data from our own landfills (Sechelt and Pender Harbour), instead we use data supplied by consultants Gartner Lee ( aka AECOM) for other communities and make assumptions that the waste we generate is the same. Accurate volumes and tonnage of waste created and recycled for analysis are also a problem on the coast and totals of private business recycling is not factored in to data in the recycling review. The GARBAGE PROJECT measures volumes and weight of materials.

THE GARBAGE PROJECT has produced is very interesting results, including consumer behavior often differs from their actual behaviours. The response about the contents of the garbage can told a different answer to phone surveys or questionnaires. People often attempted to make themselves look better in answered surveys with responses that they were great recyclers, they did not buy packaged food and resisted sweets when the garbage can told another story. William Rathje and crews also found that while many communities were focused on packaging as the evil demon and speaking of bans, that packaging was not taking up major room in landfills, and in fact over the years packaging had been reduced more than food and material waste. Disposal diapers and packaging actually take up a bout 2% of landfill space.

The real volumes in the landfill were paper and his digs found newspapers intact from twenty years earlier. Rathje’s research also highlighted the materials such as construction waste that were taking massive landfill space that were not on community’s radar for reduction. They discovered that construction and demolition debris make up 20% of landfill volume. Many so-called biodegradable products did not break down in a landfill situation and Rathje’s crew has found mummified vegetables also in the landfills from decades of waste. His research into our garbage cans also pointed out given bigger containers the consumer will make efforts to fill them.

William Rathje has written a book about his garbagology research called “ RUBBISH”. He does believe our garbage management problems are solvable, but not with many of the approaches we are using.
We will provide the following:

Gloves
Rubbish Bags
Drinking Water
Hand Sanitizer
Rubbish

You may want to bring a fluro vest as we will be on the streets and sun-block/ hat just in case it is sunny. (and a rain coat for when its not sunny)

For a map go here: 91011- CITO Map

After picking up some rubbish why not catch up with fellow cachers and have a drink/ nibble?: 91011.0

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Or n gvql xvjv!

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)


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