The Trash Assemblage
To begin our analysis our of trash assemblage, we emptied out the two large bags, which we called Bag 1 and Bag 2. The first bag (to Lacey’s left), included 3 smaller plastic bags filled with trash, which we labeled Subbag A, Subbag B, Subag C.
Robin organizing the artifacts
In order to document our assemblage, we organized the assemblage into 4 major categories: Food Related Artifacts, Cosmetic Artifacts, Personal Items (Mail, Receipts, Tags), and Miscellaneous (mostly Hygienic Waste). In this image, Robin is organizing the artifacts into separate boxes to distinguish their categories, which was done after we labeled, documented, and photographed the artifacts individually.
Artifacts from the Cosmetics category, including used cotton pads and Q-tips
Feminine Product Packaging
We have concluded that the household which we have been analyzing includes a women who likes to wear various forms of makeup. This conclusion is a result of the multitude of used cotton pads and Q-tips found, empty makeup products, and the Always packaging from feminine pad products.
Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
This is an image of the Fast Food Nation book I used as a secondary source to help analyze the large prevalence of fast food in the household’s trash. This book helped us to conclude the fast food in the trash is indicative of a busy lifestyle that may sacrifice a presence of healthy meals.
Yasso Greek Yogurt Popsicle Wrappers
Used “Fooducate” Wesbite as a secondary source to analyze the popsicles
In the assemblage, we identified multiple Yasso greek yogurt popsicles wrappers. In order to learn more about what this brand says about the lifestyle of the household that purchased it, we researched and found that Yasso popsicles are labeled as a “better than average” snack according fooducate.com, a secondary source that compares nutritional facts. This indicates that the household may be more inclined to choose healthier snack alternatives, which contradicts assumptions we made about their purchasing of fast food, demonstrating how difficult it was to draw meaningful conclusions about a household from such a small assemblage of trash.