Photos: MIT SENSEable City Lab
“Throw it away”! We use that phrase often in our daily conversation. But where exactly is “away"? What happens to our wrappers, cups, containers, and all the detritus of society, once we toss it in the trashcan or dumpster? What if we could see where our trash was going, where it ends up and how much energy it took to make it “disappear”? Would we think again before buying so called “disposable” products? Well, some folks at MIT, in collaboration with Waste Management, set out to find out.
MIT has been one of the leaders in cutting edge sustainability projects - from the broad “learning for sustainability” work I was privileged to be part of that grew out of the MIT Organizational Learning Center in the mid 1990’s - Courses like Creating Sustainable Enterprise and Systems Thinking for a Sustainable Future - to publications like Greenopolis Partner MIT Sloan Management Review, focusing on businesses who are innovating the environmentally integrated products of tomorrow.
Now researchers at the MIT SENSEable City Lab which is working on developing the cites of tomorrow where reduce energy is renewable and waste is transformed into resources have launched the Trash Track program, where what is thrown out can be tracked from where it starts to where it ends up. The Track Trash team is electronically, tagging different pieces of waste, using a tracer developed by Waste Management, to follow our “stuff” at it journeys through the disposal systems in New York City and Seattle.
Trash “tag” developed by WM.
Through understanding the patterns and hidden costs of waste disposal, Trash Track seeks to educate all of us about the impact of our garbage on the environment and make us aware of what happens when we “throw it away”.
With tracking technology, researchers can follow this coffee cup from the bin to its final destination.
"Trash is one of today's most pressing issues - both directly and as a reflection of our attitudes and behaviors," says Professor Carlo Ratti, head of the lab. "Our project aims to reveal the disposal process of our everyday objects, as well as to highlight potential inefficiencies in today's recycling and sanitation systems. The project could be considered the urban equivalent of nuclear medicine - when a tracer is injected and followed through the human body.”
"The study of what we could call the 'removal chain' is becoming as important as that of the supply chain," the lab's associate director, Assaf Biderman, explains. "Trash Track aims to make the removal chain more transparent. We hope that the project will promote behavioral change and encourage people to make more sustainable decisions about what they consume and how it affects the world around them."
In the two target cities - New York and Seattle - volunteers will allow bits of their trash to be tagged with special wireless location markers, or "trash tags." Using thousands of these markers attached to a representative sample of each cities trash, will let researchers calculate their location and send the data a central computer, where the data will be analyzed and processed “live”. The public can view the path our trash follows online, and in exhibits at the Architectural League in New York City and in the Seattle Public Library.
Nowhere to hide! Tracking Trash - live from New York…and Seattle.
So what we don’t know CAN hurt us, and what we can find out can help. Where does your trash go once you put it out the door? Stay tuned.
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