Unrecyclable items (mostly plastic) from 1 person (who recycles) for 1 month
TRASH
TALK
PART
2:
THE DARK SIDE OF CONVENIENCE
Story and photographs by Rani Birchfield
Mr. McGuire: I want to say one word
to you. Just one word.
Benjamin: Yes, sir.
Mr. McGuire: Are you listening?
Benjamin: Yes, I am.
Mr. McGuire: Plastics.
Benjamin: Exactly how do you mean?
Mr. McGuire: There’s a great future
in plastics. Think about
it. Will you think about it?
8
T
hat scene from The Graduate
(1967), a ground-breaking film
of the era, used plastic to symbol-
ize the superficial and bourgeois society
that was growing in America at the time.
Mr. McGuire, a cocktail-swilling
member of the ‘older generation,’ is
attempting to impart his wisdom of a
career choice onto Benjamin, a recent
college graduate drifting in his ennui
and ignorance. Plastic was part of the
rapid social mobility and modernization
of life after World War II, and to some it
Cenizo
Second Quarter 2019
symbolized success and equality while to
others it symbolized a one-dimensional,
materialistic generation. But plastics
indeed: There was a great as well as ter-
rible future in plastics.
The average American will produce
90,000 pounds of trash in their lifetime.
Although plastic is only a portion of that
figure, it’s the most visible roadside litter
(that and beer cans), decorating roads
and landscape as I discussed last issue.
Plastics have an interesting history,
which can’t be done justice in this
article, but I’ll hit the highlights, because
I’m obsessed with trash, much of which
is plastic.
Shellac and rubber are distant fore-
bears of plastic, as we know it. Shellac
comes from a resin secreted on trees by
the female lac bug. Its widespread intro-
duction is believed to be late 16th / early
17th century, when it began to be
described in the standard texts of the
day. It was used as a molding compound
for small items such as combs, picture
frames, small boxes, etc. in the