Making Data Bearable

Trash Talk: tales from the can--What is this all about anyway?

Archaeologists study past cultures by examining ancient remains of people, their tools, and physical objects, and food remains. In particular, they examine objects they find in relation to one another and look for patterns that would allow them to infer what behaviors those ‘assemblages’ might represent. 

These methods can be applied to modern cultures through an examination of household trash or garbage, using techniques borrowed from archaeology. This type of study is sometimes referred to as ‘Garbology.’

What is Garbology?

One of the earliest examples of garbology was the Tucson Garbage Project: an archaeological and sociological study instituted in 1973 by Dr. William Rathje in the city of Tucson in the Southwestern American state of Arizona. This project is sometimes referred to as the "garbology project." Rathje and his students examined household waste from individual households to see if they could spot any patterns in the behavior expressed in these items.

What kind of data do Garbologists find?

Everyday things such as sales slips and packaging from food and other household goods are loaded with data. Through careful examination of items collected from individual households, garbologists (like archaeologists) can learn a lot about how people consume food and other products and record detailed information (“data”) about them

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Way back in the 1970s, computer technology was pretty primitive and data were recorded on hand written coding forms and then punch cards were created (see examples) before they could be entered into a computer for analysis!  Later in the project, laptops and spreadsheet software were used for data entry.

To learn more about Garbology, explore the online references listed below and watch the video with Prof. Bill Rathje