CTtrashtrack.mp3

These sounds were recorded in a dumpster for a sound installation project.
The ease at which members of our society buy and dispose of our goods is quite disgusting, much more than the experience of rescuing useful things from the trash. The idea of making things to be thrown makes no sense unless money is the highest form of good. Companies make things to be disposable so they can sell more, with no thought of what will happen when we have used up too much, or the environment becomes so polluted that it can no longer support human life.
Dumpster diving has many negative connotations, but recently it appears to have been embraced by freegans and those who are environmentally minded. The act saves things from thousands of years of preservation in a landfill, while decreasing production. I often try to forage for useful items and food in the wild, while dumpster diving is more like urban foraging; an experience that reveals the culture of the city, rather than the culture of the nature. The sad fact is that what I leave in the wild is used and recycled naturally, while what I leave in a dumpster is sealed in a time capsule that will outlast present successes and show future generations how we have failed, should future generations come.