Huge amounts of waste are to be tracked using electronic surveillance methods. Volunteers are to donate 3,000 pieces of rubbish, which will be tagged, initially in Seattle and New York. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology project, called Trash Track, has been designed with the aim of helping people to focus on what happens to their waste when they dispose of it.
Professor Carlo Ratti, head of MIT SENSEable City Lab, said, "Trash is one of today's most pressing issues - both directly and as a reflection of our attitudes and behaviours. 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."
Assaf Biderman, associate director of the lab, said, "The study of what we could call the 'removal chain' is becoming as important as that of the supply chain. Trash Track aims to make the removal chain more transparent. We hope that the project will promote behavioural change and encourage people to make more sustainable decisions about what they consume and how it affects the world around them."
Friends of the Earth's Senior Waste Campaigner Michael Warhurst has said that this could be a "useful tool" for highlighting the impact of rubbish.
"[Waste] doesn't simply disappear when we throw it away, and all too often it ends up causing damage when it could be recycled instead. People must have much better information on - and control over - where their rubbish and recycling ends up."
In order to monitor how the pieces of rubbish move around the cities and beyond, the MIT team has developed a small mobile sensor, based on cheap and easy mobile phone functionality encased in resin, that can be attached to individual pieces of waste.The location of these pieces of waste and the journey that they go on, is transmitted to a central server. The journey is then shown on a map in real time. Eventually the team will ensure that the waste is disposed of responsibly, and the tags re-used.
A lot of green campaigners are glossing over the transition from tagging to tracking - but of course the reality behind such a project, is that not only our private lives are now under surveillance, but also, our rubbish. Although such a project is theoretically fascinating, in reality, it has rather a Big Brotherish feel to it. "Think about a future where thanks to smart tags we will not have waste anymore," said Mr Ratti. "Everything will be traceable."
Acorn Waste and Skips For You owners, Paul and Karen Cairns are not sure just how Mr Ratti proposes that smart tags will get rid of waste - other than by punishing those who generate it - ie you or me. If, in the meantime you are interested in getting rid of waste responsibly, SkipsForYou tries to ensure that as much waste as possible gets recycled in the skips that they hire out.
