[net.misc] TRASH

djs (02/25/83)

>From the NEW YORK TIMES:

"The amount [of trash] from a 420 bedroom apartment building is 1,100
cubic yards if it is "senior citizen" housing, not quite 1,300 if it is high-
income housing, 1,800 if it is middle-income housing and 2,700 cubic yards if it is low-income."

Why do poor folks create more garbage than rich folks?

mat (02/25/83)

Why do the poor create more garbage than the well--off?  Well, quite apart
from arguments stemming from Sturgeons Law, There are two reasons.
First, the poor often live in a throw--away economy, buying ``bargains'' that
turn out to have very short lifespans.  Secondly, the poor often have eating
habits based on prepackeged (junk) foods which generate a lot of loose garbage,
unlike the potato peels, congealed meat drippings, etc. of the well--off
(who also can afford to dine out more often)

The above is MY PERSONAL SPECULATION.  I welcome information from people who
KNOW.
					-hou5e!mat

arens@UCBKIM (02/25/83)

From: arens@UCBKIM (Yigal Arens)
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Rich folks don't cook.

Yigal

arens@UCBKIM (02/25/83)

From: arens@UCBKIM (Yigal Arens)
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Also, the lower the income, the more people you will find per apartment.

Yigal

bj (02/26/83)

The original NYT article said that the sanitation department figured that
the average person produced n.n pounds of trash per day.  They accounted
for the differences between the rich and the poor by the fact that poor
families tend to have more people in a bedroom and so a 420 bedroom
building would hold more people if they were poor.
					B.J.
					decvax!yale-comix!herbison-bj

jss (02/26/83)

just a guess: poor folks wear things out and throw out the remains instead
of discarding things with a lot of use left in them to the Salvation Army
or to poor relations?
judith

jss (02/26/83)

and besides, us rich folks have garbage disposals and trash compactors
(trash compactors change 50 pounds of garbage into 50 pounds of garbage,
but the cubic yardage DOES shrink)
j

hbb (02/28/83)

Perhaps it would be helpful to identify the class of people
compiling the statistics. In the event that the statisticians are
of the "rich" class, their conclusion that the "poor" generate
more trash may be based on the premis that most of the belongings
of the poor belong to the category of trash to begin with.

Certainly, a definition of trash would help explain the phenomenon, as well.

						Harlan Braude
						(hou5a!hbb)

jcz (03/01/83)

References: hou5a.307


Re: Definition of trash:

	In the particular study cited, I believe it was defined as
	what trash collector's collect.  The measurements were made
	of the refuse bins, not the living rooms.

					was once poor,
					--jcz

seth (03/09/83)

#R:ucbvax:-96800:hp-cvd:7600005:000:271
hp-cvd!seth    Mar  7 11:02:00 1983

What about garbage disposals?  You're more likely to find a
garbage disposal in a rich person's home than in a poorer
person's home (or apartment, for that matter).  Maybe some of the
rich folks' trash is going down the drain, not into the trash
can.

--Seth
hp-cvd!seth