Topic: The chosen subject matter is trash in the 19th and 20th centuries. The author focuses on the larger idea that the way one choses what is trash and what is not shows what class they are in while providing the change from the 19th century trash was almost absent due to basically everything being reused, to the 20th century where only certain classes were reusing things and disposal became separate from production, consumption, and use. Trash reveals the difference between classes. Thesis: The author argues that “trash is a dynamic category” (p5) and “that nothing is inherently trash” (p5). The author conveys that in the 19th century, there was little to no trash, because everything from rags to bones was reused, but as times changed, the population grew, and there were more people deciding they didn’t have any more …show more content…
Another underlying assumption is that people who can be more wasteful is an indicator of them having more money, means having power. This book might contribute to garbology, environmentalist, as well as oceanographers. Source Material: The author draws on many works that include that of anthropologists, Lars Eighner’s memoir of homelessness, household handbooks, newspapers and articles, business writer, and Cosmopolitan. The author uses her knowledge as well as the sources she chose to relay the idea of trash as a dynamic category. Counter Arguments: While the author states that we are not likely to go back to the stewardship days, we should be more conscious about the trash we produce, no matter our class, one thing a hostile reader could say is that the less trash we produce, it could hurt the economic system and the production of items. The economic system is run by production and labor, and if the production rate goes down, so does our economic
Lars Eighner's short essay, "Dumpster Diving," reveals the stereotypes about homelessness in America. In order to confirm these known stereotypes about American culture, Eighner includes autobiographical accounts of the economically inferior class, as well as revealing his elitist rules that governs the life of a homeless person. According to Eighner, homeless people fall into the following categories, 'can scroungers', 'Dumpster divers', and 'scavengers.' (Eighner, 1993). In addition, Eighner's blatant demonstration of his superiority to the people he scavenges from reveals his true character of snobbery.
The author, Lars Eighner explains in his informative narrative, “On Dumpster Diving” the lifestyle of living out of a dumpster. Eighner describes the necessary steps to effectively scavenge through dumpsters based on his own anecdotes as he began dumpster diving a year before he became homeless. The lessons he learned from being a dumpster diver was in being complacent to only grab what he needs and not what he wants, because in the end all those things will go to waste. Eighner shares his ideas mainly towards two direct audiences. One of them is directed to people who are dumpster divers themselves, and the other, to individuals who are unaware of how much trash we throw away and waste. However, the author does more than direct how much trash
Homelessness is increasing every year and effecting Americans of different age, ethnicity and religion. In Lars Eighner “On Dumpster Diving” he explains what he went through while being homeless. He describes how and what foods someone should be looking for and to always be conscious of what one is eating because there is always a reason why something has been thrown out. He continues to go into detail about other items that can be found in the dumpster like sheets to sleep on and pieces of paper to write on. Things that can keep him busy through the day. Eighner carefully explains to his readers how being a dumpster diver has become a life style for the homeless and this is how they survive. It’s a way of living and they are comfortable doing it. “I began dumpster diving about a year before I became homeless” (Eighner 713). He tries to bring us into the world of being homeless. It is hard to imagine what it would be like in that situation, and how could surviving as a dumpster diver be a way of survival? As a dumpster diver, Eighner is able to tell us what is ok to eat and have and what is not ok for your health. His essay starts by uttering some guidelines of what is and is not safe to eat. “Eating safely from the dumpsters involves three principles: using common sense for evaluating the food, knowing the dumpsters of the given areas and always ask, “Why was this discarded?” (Eighner 714).
"An Ocean Of Trash." Scholastic Action 33.12 (2010): 16. MasterFILE Complete. Web. 31 Jan. 2014.
I agree with his assessment about society’s throw away mentality due to the fact that I have seen it myself first hand. Recently I helped my sister move out of her dorm room at NAU and I was horrified to see all the things and edible food she was just dumping and what was worse, she wasn’t the only one. All of the kids were getting rid of perfectly good items in the dumpster, so it’s no wonder that dumpsters near college campuses are one of Eighner’s favorite places to scavenge. In his article on page 3, Eighner elaborates on student’s wasteful habits, “but in the case of discards from student apartments, the answer may be that the item was discarded through carelessness, ignorance or wastefulness.” I believe agree with Eighner that some people have a pack rat mentality while others just throw it away. My parents are a good example of this and I think it has something to do with the way that they were raised. My mom is a pack rat, holding on to everything as long as possible and giving away to charity what she doesn’t want anymore. She squeezes every last drop out of a toothpaste tube or a shampoo bottle, while my dad will throw it away half empty. My mom was raised in a single parent household, where money was tight and you used what you had… my dad however, was raised in a more affluent home and money flowed more freely. In fact, my mom does her own dumpster diving fairly regularly in our garbage can by rescuing stuff out of the garbage that my dad has thrown away, including belts, pants, shirts and hardly worn tennis shoes. She doesn’t keep the goods, but instead gives it to Goodwill or the church clothing drive. My dad is her antithesis and is definitely part of the throw-away society. My dad has little sentiment attached to stuff and like Eichner mentioned on page 6, “knows there is plenty more where what we came from.” After reflecting on
It is of no surprise to anyone that people in general, particularly Americans, tend to be overly-enticed by materialistic things and ridiculous ideals, placing more emphasis on them than things of sentiment. In “On Dumpster Diving,” author Lars Eighner develops on his experiences as a homeless man not in an attempt to defend the art of Dumpster diving, but instead to build upon the idea that a majority of people spend too much time and money on things that will not matter in a few years—they should instead focus on things that will never lose their value. Throughout the essay, he is attempting to persuade his audience that they should change their regular way of thinking and let go of materialistic things in order to live a better, more sound, and overall healthier life. To develop this purpose, Eighner utilizes juxtaposition, exemplification, and definition.
Humankind produces and consumes with little regard for waste. Susan Strasser’s Waste and Want: A Social History of Trash focuses on consumption’s byproduct; trash and what humankind has done to dispose of their waste over the past decades. Strasser catalogues an often deemed unsophisticated part of our modern society as being “central to our lives yet generally silenced or ignore” (p.36), throughout her book elucidating on the premise that one’s own view and opinion of what is deemed as trash varies greatly from person to person. Strasser explicates to the reader the rise of mass markets across the world and the impacts that production and consumption have on the creation of trash. Strasser begins to follow the story of trash in the pre-colonial
According to Sze, “Harvey uses garbage as a metaphor for the postmodern condition and as a material object (the monumental waste disposal problem) to represent changing forms of capitalism.” (Sze, 2007, p. 117) What she means by this is that some individuals linked the term ‘garbage’ as a symbolic ideology related to how our capitalist culture has grown accustomed to throwing away not only our garbage and the things we no longer need or use, but also the values, lifestyles, and personal attachments that we have made in our lives. In addition, the concept of garbage is also related to the race and class issue. That is, the author states that some neighborhoods are more inclined to have greater amounts of trash due to the individuals (or groups of individuals) that live therein. Some base the issue of garbage on race, ethnicity and socioeconomic
Americans are accustomed to wasting whenever they get the chance to, without thinking of the consequences it has on the environment. The overconsumption encouraged by the industrial economy has led to environmental issues. The essays "Waste Not, Want Not" by Bill Mckibben and "Forget Shorter Showers" by Derrick Jensen provides readers with various points on waste, how much of it there is, and the dangers it has caused to the environment; each giving their own side on the culprits behind damaging the world. Jensen claims that the largest contributor to the environment problem is the industrial economy (341).
“Put-downs, Pickups and the Power of No” is the twelfth chapter of Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash by Edward Humes. The chapter talks about living a lifestyle that is almost waste free and how you can easily start today within your own home. Most of the waste consumed from your home is from the packaging from goods that you buy, eliminating that can save money and give you less waste.
The passage written by Bill McKibben, entitled “Waste Not, Want Not” was written to bring to the forefront the huge amount of waste that a small community of only 500 people accumulate in a small amount of time. He educated the reader by showing in detail the amounts of waste that is created on a daily basis. The wasteful effects on the environment are then discussed in greater detail, that many people do not stop to think about. Last, the focus on how waste affects the economy and the personal time that is lost because of the massive amount of waste that we accept in our daily lives.
Stix, M. (2012). Treasure Amidst Trash: Preserving Community in the World’s Largest Garbage City. Shifting Perspectives .
Garbage is defined as anything worthless, useless, or discarded. Unfortunately, Americans are professionals at producing trash. In fact, the average American household throws out four and a half pounds of trash each day, and collectively we produce 243 million tons of trash within a year (Smith). The problem of trash production has been around for ages, but it has continued to be ignored by the general population.
Slow violence is a severe problem in the world today and this can be shown in the documentaries Plastic Cow, E-Wasteland and Chris Jordan’s photograph and film Midway: Message and the Gyre Project and the paper “Wasted Humans and Garbage Animals: Deadly Transcorporeality and Documentary Activism” by Chia-ju Chang. Especially living in the United States in the exceedingly developed city of New York it is hard to envision the kind of problems and hindrances, garbage, is affecting people living on the other side of the world and especially be responsible for that same problem. The paper and documentaries all emphasize the harms linked with acts of slow violence like toxins that get released into the environment, carelessness for waste workers and the effect on animals.
People should know the negative impact throwing away a water bottle or newspaper, purchasing meat from the grocery store or consuming gasoline has on the environment, and many do not. By informing society about how their decisions affect the environment, we can help save our planet and change our attitude toward the land we live on, the water we drink and the air we breathe” and truly show respect for the stuff that we depend on. The United States produces “about 8.25 billion tons of solid waste each year” (Russell 1). People do not realize the impact they have on our planet and the environment. When people throw anything in the trashcan, they are contributing to the destruction of our planet.