Trash Trip

Posted By admin on October 25, 2009

UZITAGN, baby!

It’s the weekend, after two fruitful days of interviewing in the San Francisco bay area. In summary, it included: five interviewees, four locations, three interviewers, two cameras, and one digital audio recorder. Lots of smiles. Pictures, videos, and maps from the past two days are being posted, as I type.

Joe Garbarino, a man with a mission, operates the Marin Sanitary Services out of San Rafael. His license plate says it all – “UZITAGN” – for those who don’t speak license-plate, it reads “Use it Again” (baby!) I like adding the “Baby!” part myself, but that wouldn’t fit on a US-sized plate.

There will be videos available for viewing, on the TrashTrip YouTube channel, but wait until Sunday, to check them all out online.

After Joe, we headed south to San Jose State University, to meet up with Heidi Sanborn of the California Product Stewardship Program and Bruce Olszewski of San Jose State University. Be sure to check out their website for information you can use in your area – even if you’re not in California! Like any problem, the real solution to waste is to deal with it at the source – and the producers are a good place to start!

Ari Derfel and Tom Padia would agree, that nipping things in the bud is better than playing catch-up at the landfill. Ari’s blog illustrates what one person can do, over the course of one year, collecting his own trash (excluding the stinky food waste); while Tom works on getting county-wide efforts in place, with Stop Waste, to divert as much waste from the landfills. As they both said, “everything” should be removed from the waste stream. . . because, in nature, nothing is wasted – and that’s about as efficient as it gets!

See what happened to Ari’s one-year-collection of trash, as it was transformed into art, “Finding Away,” by Kuros Zahedi of Bellingham, WA.

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Posted By admin on October 20, 2009

No Impact Project - Starts October 18, 2009!

I got wind of this today – No Impact Project – thanks again to Lisa Wood, of San Diego! A fascinating story and project which you can try out for yourself. I want to do this in the future, no particular time frame either, when I am not roaming the earth. I do my best but it is nothing compared to what this family has achieved!

It really is the simple stuff that we enjoy the most – yet we give it so little of our attention.

They have an interesting website with a how-to manual for helping seed some ideas for ways to participate in your own no-impact home project.

So, try a change of pace and give this a go – be it this week, or any other week (or weeks) of the year (and years) ahead!

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Posted By admin on October 14, 2009

Go to www.stopwaste.org to see what they're doing!

Timing is everything!

Yet another amazing series of events, resulting in something better than I could’ve ever hoped to have planned. In short, the following series of events lead to me attending the monthly board meeting for StopWaste, for Alameda County:

Monday, I contacted someone for an interview, who told me I could meet her at an upcoming board meeting – Tuesday morning 10 am – for StopWaste.

I wouldn’t have known about the meeting, had I not contacted Heidi Sanborn, of the California Product Stewardship Council.

I wouldn’t have known about Heidi and CPSC if I hadn’t gone to Wastecon.

I wouldn’t have gone to Wastecon had I not known Lisa Wood, of the San Diego waste management department. Lisa saw one of the re-prints of the article written about my trip, from The Daily Miner, in Fairbanks, AK.

I wouldn’t have had an article written up about me in Fairbanks had my dad not asked me to call the local newspaper, about an upcoming 40th anniversary of the crash of one of the planes he flew in 1969, Rivet Amber (it crashed months after I was born). After mentioning the upcoming memorial, I mentioned the story about my upcoming trip. . . I had yet to head north, to begin my southbound journey. They wrote about it, on my way south, later that month.

So, in essence, I was born to do this trip! Everything that’s gone around is coming around, I guess, and in a lovely way as I make my way down the west coast.

PS I saw this today, my first day back in Sausalito, about their plastic and polystyrene ban. . . local headline news and great timing – for me to find, unexpectedly and serendipitously, once more!

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Posted By admin on October 6, 2009

Twitter Followers

I’m not much of a Twitter “follower” but I do provide a way for others to follow Trash Trip via Twitter – for those who do use it.

Today, I went looking at my list of followers – just over 30, when I started. Then, I looked at each one’s Twitter account, to see if there was something worth following. For those who Twitt, this should be no surprise. . . I found a buncha twits, only aiming at advertising “whatever” – and not necessarily related to trash or recycling, lemme tell ya.

So, I did my best at screening (i.e. blocking) those whose accounts amounted to an empty advertisement scheme or offer for services that were “not necessary.” Those who remain (today, at around 24 count) are either “real people” or seem to be somehow trash/recycling related.

Otherwise, if you’re a real human, with a real interest in what’s happening in the world of trash, c’mon and Twitt with me! www.twitter.com/trashtrip

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Posted By admin on October 5, 2009

You Tube Channel - Subscribers

After posting a ridiculous number of new videos (60+) from August and September’s trips out to the middle of the Pacific Ocean and Wastecon 2009, I checked out my YouTube subscribers. . . all 14 of them

Who knew that there was a crowd of trash truck fans? I didn’t. . . before starting this trip. . . but now I do! So, I’m going to do my best at capturing all that I can on the trucks I see along my trip to Argentina. I hope I deliver something fun and interesting for them and those who subscribe to www.youtube.com/trashtrip!

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Posted By admin on October 2, 2009

Sitting at the bow (in the net) ready to radio the helm about ghost nets.

I’m finally catching up on adding features to this website – a call-in feature. It’s sooooo cool!!!

Just click on the button in the right column (it looks exactly like the one above this paragraph), enter your name and number (you have the option to remain “anonymous”), then wait for a call at the number you entered. When you get a call, listen to the instructions from Google Voice, then the outgoing message by me – then fire away with your comments!

If you want me to add your comments to the (future) podcast, let me know in your message – be sure to speak loudly and clearly, it tends to get a little garble and inaudible, yada, yada, when you don’t.

So, have some fun and call in your thoughts, comments, news ideas, and more – keep it “trashy” but, you know, not trashy.

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Posted By admin on September 30, 2009

Hanging out on the foremast

After nearly two months of delays, I have FINALLY updated my collection of pictures, from the trip out to the Pacific Gyre. Yay!

So, head on over to see what’s new – on the pictures page – there are dozens of new albums… dozens. Enjoy!

(Soon to come, videos. Many, many videos)

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Posted By admin on September 28, 2009

Karen a la cartoon

Last week, I attended www.wastecon.com in Long Beach, CA. For those who have been to one or two conventions, they all share one similar trait: snacks!! This one was no exception. . . not by a long shot. From ice cream bars and sandwiches, to donuts and cookies, it was there; hard candies, hah! Just walk on by If you’re a serious booth, you have the number one yum: chocolate.

On that note, however, I found myself perplexed and struggling at one point – when I walked by the booth for “Odor Control.” They had miniature chocolate chunks, enclosed in a custom wrapper labeled with “Odor Control” and “Odor Neutralizers” prominently displayed – among other things. But, nature persisted and the chocolate tasted no different than one lovingly wrapped in words like “Sweetness” and “Chocolate Conquers all Fears.”

At the convention, I gave a one hour presentation on my travels to date: from Alaska to California. It was an informal affair; I stood at one of the corner “booths” in the central “Break Zone” (where people went to sit, relax, and take a break – sounds appropriate) and gave my one hour tour of the west coast. About ten people joined me, in my fireside storytelling setting (minus the fireside).

The night and morning before, I spent hours gathering, sizing, and saving a collection of 900+ images to scroll through behind me, while I chatted. That morning, all was working well and I began sharing my story with the handful of people who made their way there to listen. Additional passers-by joined the group and I gladly continued. Meanwhile, my slideshow decided to discontinue its show behind me – as the computer went into screensaver mode. . . with an administrator/password lock-out.

Yup, you are correct, there were no pictures after that! Oh well. All is well that ends well – because the images were actually a distraction. With the slideshow over, people paid more attention to my words, than my pictures, after that.

My time slot marked the middle of the convention, with technical sessions and information sessions a plenty, all the while. I went to as many sessions as I could, to gain insight into topics such as: “Extended Producer Responsibility” and “Waste to Energy” (the latter was the hot topic du jour, no pun intended.)

In closing, I want to thank those who made this happen, for me that is: Lisa Wood and Meri Beth Wojtaszek, among others – thank you! I made several new contacts during the convention, which will continue to “pave the way” as I travel and explore waste.

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Posted By admin on September 19, 2009

Okay, I took some liberties and edited an episode from F u t u r a m a, down to 5 minutes, about 20th century trash returning to earth!

If this video doesn’t work, it has probably been deleted

I haven’t seen this show in years and happened to see this at a friend’s place just the other day – the timing is impeccable!

Here are some source links, to more information about this episode and links to the full version:

http://futurama.wikia.com/wiki/A_Big_Piece_of_Garbage

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Big_Piece_of_Garbage

http://www.tv.com/futurama/a-big-piece-of-garbage/episode/1541/summary.html

http://tvshack.net/tv/Futurama/season_1/episode_8/

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Posted By admin on September 16, 2009

The Thinker Pose - At Urban Ore

Okay, it has been a mighty long time since I made a real update to my blog.

Please accept my most heart-felt apologies!

Okay, with that business aside, here’s why. . . I was gone, quite literally, for the month of August. Just go look at my Map for August 4-27 – I am not kidding you, in the slightest!

Now, I am in a mad dash to San Diego, bypassing any and all interviews in the bay area (you know, the cutting edge of solid waste management in the US – makes sense, right?) But, again, this is all for good reasons:

I will be presenting at Wastecon 2009. Come join me!

Of course, if you cannot make it to San Diego later this month, check out the new (old) stuff I’ve (finally) posted: Pictures, Videos, and Maps.

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