Sunday evening, I needed a bicycle ride after spending a beautiful spring day inside working on law school homework. So I pedaled straight west on Farmington, then buzzed UConn Law School and pointed to the burbs on Fern Street.

 

The goal was to see how far I could get in 30 minutes. Once I crossed Prospect, I noticed it was trash day, and after about 10 minutes, I spotted an oriental rug that looked worth salvaging. I bolted home and grabbed my camera and messenger bag.

 

The trash we discard tells much about our society, and gives us an idea of what small actions we can take to reduce the waste that enters into our trash streams, all of which ends up either back in our air, as electricity or as ash on Mount Trashmore in Hartford's North Meadows.

 

So, in honor of Earth Day, here is a short photo essay on what we throw away.

A Boogey board.

An ironing board, a suitcase and a medicine cabinet.

Two leaf blowers. But they recycle, too.

A computer and a monitor. An argument for Extended Producer Responsibility, or mandatoryproducttakeback policies.

So, did these just go out of fashion, or are they really not usable? And why do they belong in a landfill?

We can't see inside these bins, but I guarantee the disposable diapers are in there. And note the planned obsolesence in action with the filing cabinet. Two kitchen chairs hide there, too.

In a post-diaper world, we toss the potty, too. And the wagon.

Carpet pads. Interface carpets is the world leader in closed loop rug manufacturing.

While this isn't trash, necessarily, the SUV's in these pictures are responsible for plenty of pollution, and bicyclists like myself confront fresh road kill on a daily basis, in a manner far more personal than which the automobile driver experiences. If you think this is gross, I can't wait to see what kind of monitoring and numbers this project comes up with.