CSR, Social Change, Strategic Foresight, Technology

What if we knew exactly where our trash was going and how much energy it took to make it disappear?  Would it make us think twice about buying bottled water or “disposable” razors?

The supply chain for products we use is something that has undergone rigorous analysis and innovations that have resulted in improved efficiencies, but what about the “removal chain”?  Could a better understanding of what happens to products after we use them promote behavioral change and encourage people to make more sustainable decisions about what they consume and how it affects the world around them?

A team of researchers from MIT SENSEable City Lab (http://senseable.mit.edu/) recently embarked on a major project called Trash Track, which aims to get people thinking about what they throw away and how it impacts the environment. Like an urban equivalent of nuclear medicine–where a tracer is injected and followed through the human body, the project uses custom-designed electronic tags to track different types of waste on their final journeys through the disposal systems of New York and Seattle. Waste Management and Qualcomm funded the study.

The project’s objective is to reveal the disposal process of everyday objects and highlight potential inefficiencies in the recycling and sanitation systems. In mid-July, Trash Track enlisted volunteers in New York and Seattle, who allowed 3000 pieces of their trash to be electronically tagged with special wireless markers or “trash tags”. Working with Waste Management, the SENSEable City Lab team is monitoring the path of trash in real-time using the tags, which report data to a central server at MIT, where it is processed and visualized into dynamic maps showing a slice of the city’s waste stream.

Trash Track was initially inspired by the Green NYC Initiative, the goal of which is to increase the rate of waste recycling in New York to almost 100% by 2030. Currently only about 30% of the city’s waste is diverted from landfills for recycling.

This week, the preliminary results of Trash Track are being unveiled in two new exhibitions in New York and Seattle. For more information, visit http://senseable.mit.edu/trashtalk/index/php