Over the course of the past few years, I have become progressively more interested in the subject of trash. The fact that the average U.S. resident generates 4.4lbs of waste per day, resulting in 221 million tons of waste per year (see figure 1) is astounding. The trash we produce is part of a complex web of behaviors and values entrenched in the habits of our consumer society.

In a culture that simultaneously values the acquisition of material goods and their efficient disposability, the question arises -- what will be done with all our trash?

As a student of Environmental Studies at Brown University, I decided to pursue this question in detail. I spent a summer in Brazil coordinating with community groups that do environmental education through turning trash into art and marketable products. (You can see some of these projects here). When I returned to Brown and to Providence, RI, I decided to explore the problem of garbage and garbage management in the City of Providence.

Providence is a mid-size city of about 175,000 people. It is divided into neighborhoods, several of which are considered inner-city or urban core areas. (Map of Providence neighborhoods). My undergraduate thesis research investigated whether certain modes of communication to residents of these urban core neighborhoods can effectively alter poor garbage management and recycling habits.
My central questions were:

Figure 1.
URL: www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/muncpl/factbook/internet/mswf/gen.htm	This graph shows total waste generation in the United States before recycling.

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