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Discussion thread: Discard Anthro (GARBAGE) (Patreon)

Published:
2022-11-11 23:28:51
Imported:
2026-06

Content

Have you heard Dr. Robin Nagle chat about her niche in anthropology? GARBAGE, people. Trash. Rubbish. Recycling. Reusing. Plastics. Landfills. And the treasures she's found among other people's discards. 

What did you think? Anyone have behind-the-scenes questions? Good garbage stories? Who among us hasn't had a friend who threw their retainer away at the cafeteria, RIGHT?

All ears,

Ol' Ward

Files

Discard Anthropology (GARBAGE) with Dr. Robin Nagle - alie ward

Landfills! Treasures in the trash! Corporate conspiracies! Composting! An instantly classic conversation with the incredibly knowledgeable, frank and wonderful Dr. Robin Nagle of New York University's Liberal Studies! She is a clinical professor, author, TED speaker and former New York City sanitati

Comments

Nikki Paige

Oh damn I threw one retainer away at McDonald's by accent. The first one I accidently crushed in the car door. No seriously, it was an honest to glob accident. 😅

Anna Thompson

My parents love to "curbcycle" which seems to be a step up from mongo. It's stuff their neighbors purposely put out and announce on Facebook and people pick it up. My first apartment was furnished mainly with pieces my dad had found while running, called my mom who went and snagged it and then they cleaned up and flipped!

Jessie Pearce

I would have loved to have a class like this in school(add to public school curriculum?), because the profession is so critical to the health and safety of our communities!

Chandler Witherington

Loved it. I know plastics are terrible and I try to reduce my use of them as much as possible, but hearing the fact about all plastics off-gassing and that babies sucking on bottles are sucking in that gas too... what are we even doing?????

Alie Ward

how much dollars did it cost to replace it and how grounded were you

Alie Ward

Hell yeah!! Still literally half my furniture

Alie Ward

I loved what Dr. Nagle said about how the sanitation department is in greater danger but gets less respect (and fewer free coffees) than the FD and PD. I thought that was such valuable perspective, right??

Amy Zucker Morgenstern

I wished I had submitted a question, because the system in my city is quite different (e.g., bins instead of plastic bags--does this make us Rat Dystopia? we can hope!) and I wondered whether there were other sanitation departments, outside of NYC, that Robin thought were doing something really well and that the rest of us might copy. But I didn't. So now I want to know from other listeners: is there something about how sanitation is done where you live that sounds like a solution to the problems Robin described? I'll nominate San Francisco for those bins, and now ponder: why on earth do we use plastic bags at all? Shouldn't we just dump our stuff right into the bins? I'm going to ask our sanitation service.

Alie Ward

Right?? We'll look back on certain plastics like we do asbestos now. Shiver me timbers! I remember in the Hematology episode about blood and blood cancer with Dr. Brian Durie (a specialist in multiple myeloma, which is what my dad had) he mentioned that there are hundreds of thousands of new chemicals and we don't fully know what a lot of them do, long-long term. Perhaps one day computing will accelerate enough to run better models. But yes, we are just big goofy babies inventing shit that kills us sometimes

Kyla C (KAI-luh, rhymes with Myra or Lyla)

Loved this episode! I coincidentally got to attend a Recology talk that night and am now fascinated what happens when waste management is handled by a municipal department versus a private company. I'm going to thank the next sanitation worker I see <3

Alie Ward

That's a great question! Anyone wanna chime in for AZM? Canada has green bins for food waste and we talked a lot about them in the Procyonology episode about raccoons (spoiler: those greenbins are raccoon buffets... heaven.)

Alie Ward

No way! Was it in the Bay Area?

Euan Munro

Great episode, it hit all the tip points I'd wanted to hear as someone who works in waste and recycling. Even things like landfill cells and how incinerators aren't all that bad!

Avren Keating

Is there any way we can support the person doing the 9/11 sanitation worker documentary?

Chandler Witherington

In my city we are actually not supposed to put trash in our bins (they are like big plastic rolling carts we roll the the street) WITHOUT putting it in plastic bags first. I can only assume it is because if the trash isn't contained in something, it can more easily fly out of the bin when the collection truck dumps it into the back. However, we are not supposed to put recyclables in plastic bags, but I see so many recycle bins at the curb with the recycling bagged up (as well as many non-curbside recyclable items like styrofoam). It is really frustrating. I feel like all citizens should have to take a class on what to put in the trash and what to put in the recycle bin. But also it is very confusing and, ultimately, WE should not be the ones responsible, it should be the corporations that make and use the plastic that should be. Sorry for the rant I have a lot of feelings lol.

Crystal Wilson

Upon my many dumpster dives, I have found jewelry, cash and designer articles. But a find that lives in my living room is an 18th century chest of drawers, curvy with all the hardware. 😍

Chandler Witherington

also would like to add that next time I see a sanitation worker in my neighborhood (trash, recycling, yard waste, etc.) you bet your ass I am going to say THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU DO

Chandler Witherington

Also need to listen to the hematology episode!!!! Sounds fascinating

Alie Ward

EUAN have you ever found anything bonkers that was thrown away? Do you think the Bitcoin Garbage Dump Guy has a chance at finding his fortune?

Antonia Clark

Great episode that I immediately shared with my colleague that works in waste management. He knew it was the podcast I always cite when spewing random facts at team meetings; and I am so glad that I now have another Ologite in my life because he listened to 3 episodes while cleaning the house :)

Mowana Lomaomvaya

This episode reminded me of the Tucson Garbage Project in Arizona (hey howdy I’m in AZ) in the 1970s. My archaeology professor would talk about it here and there. If I remember correctly, he helped! Garbology is fascinating!

Jessie Pearce

Absolutely!!! They are so valuable, I love now knowing the term mongo! I have had great experiences at the “dump” which now the town calls, “the transfer center” (I feel like that name shows a bit more appreciation for the whole operation). There was a whole area for townspeople to leave items that could be repurposed by another. I was about to throw out a tarp when the cat next to me asked for it - love that!!

Alie Ward

Wooooow. I hope Antique Roadshow comes calling, because thems some treasures. It's so true how she said the limiting factor in "discards" is time, and how people throw valuable things away without rehoming them

Avren Keating

It's the same guy as the 9/11 cancer reporting?

Euan Munro

Unfortunately I don't spend that much time in sites, just working on spreadsheet sheets, reports and video calls! Although the craziest thing I heard was a dead kangaroo come through a recycling plant in England! That guy is never getting his bitcoin back imho. Prior to that story there was a high profile case of an airman in the RAF (Corrie McKeague) who they are 99.9% sure went to sleep in a dumpster and tragically died when it got collected. They really tried to find his body in the landfill but had to give up. A hard drive is significantly smaller than a body so even harder to find.

Antonia Clark

I assume so since he binged 3 episodes, haha. Also, what's there not to like?!? ❤️

Euan Munro

On a more positive note, they're are now systems that detect people sleeping in bins that aim to prevent that reoccurring, and they are starting to be used by local councils and private companies. It's an unfortunate byproduct of recycling, that those bins are much more attractive to sleep in if you're homeless compared to if it was rubbish.

Lizzy Martinez

Curious/stupid thought process here after listening to the 'sode every day since it came out lol. I'm always curious about the beach clean ups here in So Cal. They pick up trash to go into trash bags which then go to the dump vs staying on the beach. But how do we make sure that same trash doesn't end up a little closer to it's first home - in the ocean? Seems like it would be the same way we make sure other trash doesn't get in the ocean, but there sure is a lot of trash in our ocean.

Kyla C (KAI-luh, rhymes with Myra or Lyla)

Yes, it was on Zoom for my Bay Area gardening class! I got to ask about the effects of the China recycling ban and feel smart hehe thank you Dr. Nagle!!

Gordon Haas

Wonderful episode! Thanks, Alie & Dr. Nagle. Here in Oregon, some folks came a few years back to get an old, rusty waffle iron that had been dug from a private trash pit behind the house where the high school track coach, Bill Bowerman lived. They found what they were looking for, They took that old waffle iron and put it on display in a place of honor in a museum. Why? Coach Bowerman had taken his wife's waffle iron many years earlier and poured liquid latex on it to cure into a bumpy surface he could glue to the soles of basketball shoes for more grip for track & field athletes. That waffle iron FOUNDED Nike, Inc. https://www.oregonlive.com/behindducksbeat/2011/02/nikes_holy_grail_bowerman_fami.html

Heidi Johnstone

Loved it so much! I was especially shook by the amount of municipal waste vs industrial. Individual responsibility seems like a poke in the bush now

Nikki Paige

I don't even know, it was the 90's and I had no clue about money lol. Actually I think it was covered by the settlement (car accident when I was 8, 4 front teeth jammed up into my jaw, insurance covered all teeth stuff until I was 18 as a result). And I was given the sigh-you-need-to-be-more-careful talk, but not grounded, lol

Spencer Parks

That reminds me of the movie Parenthood. Rough scene.

Anna Doo

Dr Robin’s intimate knowledge of the sanitation department clearly informs and shines through her work. What a treat to hear her share her ability to drive a truck on the NY streets and wax poetic about realistic ways to save Mother Earth! BTWs…I still feel super helpless when it comes to leaving this planet better than a doomsday novel for my children. Sigh.

Alie Ward

I think anything we can save from the water's edge -- or reclaim from it -- is a good thing! But yes it's a drop in that actual ocean

Alie Ward

I loved how much she loved learning trucks!

Davis Born

I just want to say this was so validating of my struggles to actually recycle. Pasadena claims to sort all the recycling out of the trash but surely it gets too dirty for that! So I try to find blue bins to put my recycling in and it takes so much effort and it probably won’t be recycled anyway! Very bad for my anxiety. The statistic that only 3% of trash comes from households will definitely be something I carry with me to make it easier to show myself a little grace.

Charlie

It was scary finding out how little plastic can be recycled and that we've been lied to for a long time although not surprising, how can we put pressure on the companies that enable this? and the more i think about it the more stressed my lil brain gets, it feels so hopeless 😭 what can one person do to help? Really really interesting episode though thankyou :)

Charlie

In England there was an issue fairly recently where our local authority councils were packing up the recycling that people did, perfectly good recyclable waste and they shipped it away.... sold it.... to another country..... where they put it.... INTO A LANDFILL 😭😭

Spencer Parks

The retainer being thrown out. Yuck-a-doodle-doo.

Sarah

I did already know about what a grand lie "plastic recycling" is, but it never gets less depressing! I keep holding out hope that we find a way to make an analog to it, because there are so many ways in which it has been so so useful to people's lives. I had found so many ways to phase plastic out of my house (it's a little more work in some ways, but I wanted to put in that work for my own peace of mind), and then my elderly mother came to live with me, and the need for it suddenly multiplied exponentially. While I always try to encourage more people to reduce and try to live more sustainably, I really struggle to do it without sacrificing quality of care for my mother, for example.

Curtis St.Pierre

In my small town in Canada I’ve started a composting service since we don’t have the population to justify a municipal green bin collection and I’m wondering if anyone has some advice for getting people to care about their garbage. Like what to say to the “ I couldn’t be bothered with that “ people to convince them that diverting waste from a landfill is important. Any advice helps, thanks in advance Curtis S.

Lizzy Martinez

Definitely a great focus to have. I'll continue to support however I can with hopes it gets handled appropriately and stays away from Nemo and friends 😅.

the worm lady

oof! I was hoping she was going to see "noooo no fucked at all" (lol, I knew better but well). I have a small baby and now I am thinking, "Should he be going back in?" 🤔😂🥴

Julia Vollmer

Is there a way we can make garbage collection and disposal more environmentally friendly?

Anne Bergamesca

Lol but no, don’t put him back in! He is obviously in a good place with you, a mom who will bring him

geo.sassie

Okay so I'm a geologist working in contaminated land and literally this week I was digging through landfill with an excavator and it is h o r r i f y i n g how slow things break down - like how well plastics stay preserved, pieces of treated timber that have been under ground for 50 years that look like they were only put there a year or two ago, or even just masses of glass bottles and scrap metal! Before this episode I didn't realise how few plastics can be recycled (yikes), but a lot of what I was digging up could have been processed in a way that wasn't filling the ground (and hiding my pretty soil/rock I wanted to see...!). I'm all for incineration and recycling because just yikes.... Eye opening episode just compounded the week I'd had to be fair!

Irit Mogilevsky

Awesome episode!! Very important to honor and recognize the important work sanitation workers are doing. I live in Berlin, and we have 6 different bins!! Our Hausmeister is in charge of rolling each one out from the backyard of the building to the street on the right day. Also, here it's very common to get stuff from free-boxes on the street. Most of my clothes since I moved here I found on the street, and so are some of our furniture :) Me and my flatmates recently built shelves from bricks and planks we found on an abandoned construction site. While writing this I realized I have so much garbage stories I could start my own podcast 😂

Darlene Skapura

Is it true that raised areas in a rather flat area could be native american garbage dumps? What kind of “garbage” would be expected from native americans?

WiGeekMom

More than likely they are burial mounds and sacred sites.

WiGeekMom

True story... Our landfill is within the city limits. Every once in a while one of the cells doesn't vent correctly and the entire city smells it.

Ashleigh Rivers

Same issue where I am. Bag the trash, but not the recycling. I have thought about making flyers to put out in the neighborhood (along with for the love all that is good, pick up your pets’ poop! Ideally in plant-based bags!). But yes, the bags are needed to contain the trash. In addition to it creating more litter to not have it bagged, if there is food waste (for those of us without compost service), the bins would get VERY gross very fast and likely even more of a health hazard. BUT! They do make strong plant-based trash bags. It took me a good bit of trial and error to find one’s strong enough: hippo sak bags are great (though I haven’t found them locally— I have to order them online which… isn’t ideal…)! I’ll share that in another post so it’s get seen more.

Ashleigh Rivers

Great episode. First— hippo sak makes great plant-based trash bags. They still go to the landfill, but at least they’re not petroleum based. They would compost, but not sure I’m what kind of process. I get other (quickly) compostable bags for the bathroom trash cans. I knew a good bit of this info, but I learned soooo much more too. In college I took a geology class (in another life I was a geologist I think) and we went to sanitation centers here for a tour. We got the water treatment tour and garbage and recycling tour. My step daughter toured the garbage and recycling center again a few years ago for an internship study. For a while, my city was storing plastic in Shillong containers in hopes that one day there would be a buyer. And at least for a while (not sure if they still do) my city actually would go back clean the contaminated recycling. I think one day we’ll get a lot better about what we discard. I wish manufacturers would go back to making the products that just need replacement parts instead of a whole new thing. There was a heater from the 50’s in my mountain house that still worked great—a little unsafe around kiddos, but still— and the people who robbed the house are probably still using that heater today (punks)!

Alie Ward

I think about this a lot with Covid, just how much more plastic we are using because of cautionary medical measures and it's so difficult because the need is there for a lot of it...

Alie Ward

That's amazing that you've started that service! Maybe incentivizing them with produce from a community garden grown using compost would be a good idea? Like for every time they contribute to the compost, they get a ticket and they can cash that in for produce or discounts later?

Alie Ward

Aaahaha, going back in! And yeah, I know so many folks who became environmentalists as soon as they had kids. Maybe contributing and elevating the Indigenous voices who have always said "everyone's babies are our babies, the Earth belongs to the future" might help...

Alie Ward

I think, for me, I'm more inspired to become familiar with my local recycling facility to see what they take, and shopping with those containers in mind (or without single use containers at all...)

Alie Ward

Aaaaah! What type of land is it on? I imagine the more arid biomes decompose more slowly, but maybe I'm wrong?

Alie Ward

I wish we had more "free boxes" around! I do think the Next Door and "Buy Nothing" groups have been great. I have given away so many things on those, even if they need a little fixing. I would have felt bad donating them but in the Buy Nothing, it seems people are more open to imperfect items

Alie Ward

Good question -- we didn't cover that but I think @wiGeekMom has a great point here...

Alie Ward

Aaaah, planned obsolescence is so LUCRATIVE though! Gaaaah!

Bre Snodgrass

Curious what kind of impact a service like Ridwell can have on the State of Things. Their reach is pretty limited at the moment, but I’m intrigued and inspired by the fact that they take hard/inconvenient-to-recycle items *and* the fact that they pick up from your doorstep, which makes it a no-brainer for folks to not just chuck things in the trash. Obviously, cost is a limiting factor, but I’m curious if this sort of thing will gain traction as more people become aware of & concerned about our collective waste management.

Fiorelily

As a ridwell customer who has introduced many to their service, I know that people are willing to step up and pay a premium to a company who can recycle those hard to recycle items.

Fiorelily

In the Pacific northwest there are shell middens you can still find on the coastline where indigenous people would collect their waste shells after eating.

Cat Kessler

This was the most unexpectedly beautiful conversation, and I loved it! If anyone wants more, the “Is Recycling BS” episode of How to Save a Planet digs in a little deeper on the recyclables question and on the 1970s propaganda piece — highly recommend!

geo.sassie

I wish it was arid... This is the UK with the landfill deposited on top of river deposits so was naturally damp with reasonably high ground water........ Only good news is it's clayey so the gross leachate won't go anywhere!

Ashleigh Rivers

I know… 😩 But look at Patagonia! They make great products and they refurbish their old stuff and make it better! Also, no idea what Shillong is. Definitely meant *shipping* containers.

Between Dumplings

One thing we forget is that the first R is Reduce, then Reuse, then Recycle. We've been trying to reduce the amount of single-use plastics, and the forever-jugs of detergent are no more. Detergent sheets are SO much easier to cart home, easier on the environment and clean clothes pretty well! I really hope someone is inspired and has energy to highlight this shifting of the responsibility - THEIR greed and disregard for the planet disappears in our willingness to accept that WE and our failure to recycle are the problem! True story: friend in the restaurant biz when opening their first place, was determined to include responsible recycling, and coaching employees to wash and sort and bin appropirately. One day, arrived to the resto at the same time the sanitation workers were picking up trash and saw them dumping the carefully sorted and cleaned "recycleables" into the SAME truck as the trash. She YELLED at them WTF? They just shrugged "we're just following orders."

Between Dumplings

ALSO YES to leaving outdoor shoes outside the living space. EUW.

Marisa

Loved this episode and guest!!! Learned a ton!!

Lindsay Harrigan

Loved this episode! One way to reduce your plastics use if you’re into that is bar soaps for shampoo and conditioner! Fewer bottles to go through, works just fine on my temperamental hair, but does take some getting used to

Bethany Barlow

Do you think the waste cycle will ever become circular enough to vastly reduce the amount of waste we create? Is there a feasible way to destroy all of the waste currently on the planet?

Lee Wang

I'm not going to lie, parts of this episode had me despairing even more than climate change discussions, I think partly because my long-held assumptions have proven to be false: that I can toss any old thing (like a peanut butter jar) into the recycling and It'll Be Fine, that my personal contributions matter on a macro scale, and that plastic recycling actually works. Anyone else have suggestions to stave off the despair?

Toby Mark Gritten

Thank you so much for this episode. I really appreciated it. I have worked in the waste industry for many years and in many different types of work from waste management consultant to street cleaner, garbage collector, asbestos removal, recycling and municipal waste collections, industrial and hazardous waste to demolition. Operating landfills, incinerators and recycling plants. This was a great interview and what a wonderful and eloquent person this lady is. Thank you so much from all of us wasters for highlighting the safety of us chaps who do the work.

Rachel Cannon

I had a job picking up litter on city trails while I went to graduate school for anthropology and I spent way too much time thinking about what garbage says about people. I'm so happy this is an actual field of research!! 😊

William Andrews

I have worked in the lab at a couple of wastewater treatment / water reclamation plants and at several landfills and a couple of greenwaste /composting sites over the course of my career. I can echo so much of what was said in the episode. Recycling of plastics is a tricky thing. Some locations have much more intensive programs and better actual recycling rates (amount from the blue bin that actually gets put to use again.) I once even went out of my way on a vacation to drive by Fresh Kills (which I refer to as DSNY land). Fresh Kills had been closed to trash in early 2001. But because of the open space, equipment available, etc. it was the destination for the truckloads of debris from the WTC.

William Andrews

There are big shifts happening. When China implemented "National Sword" (the cutting off of taking bad recyclables) the USA was not doing what it should for recycling. Now there is a much more robust set of facilities and innovation in the recycling space has grown. Working in the waste industry I can tell you that we are far better off in the USA than we were 25 years ago, much less 50 or 70 years ago.