This is where it’s Happenin’ (The Intro, Lit Review, and Everything Else)
The Green House Affects: Trash-Picking and the Green Movement
“We think of the word trash as something disgusting or filthy. Really, trash is something we dispose of” (quoted in Erika Pesantes’s “Artists and Entrepreneurs Race to Trash Bins,” 2009). I agree with Jeff Ferrell, the author of Empire of Scrounge, that the word trash has a negative connotation and when combined, the word trash-picking gets a bad reputation. This research project is focused on how the current green movement is altering perceptions of trash-picking in the U.S. through my own personal experiences, growing up in a “green house” made of repurposed materials, along with growing up in an environmentally conscious family. I will show how this aspect of picking trash can be beneficial and should not be seen as an unfavorable act. Some may find dumpster diving humiliating or just “plain unhygienic,” as Christine Jackman puts it in the article “7 days to Save the Planet” (2009), but with some knowledge of where to look and how to repurpose objects it can be a beneficial money saver. Trash-picking is collecting objects that can be repurposed; it is as simple as that. Repurposing does not mean that an object needs to be turned into something else; a fish bowl can remain a fish bowl. It was considered an underground sub-culture, but no longer, becasue more people are diving. With the combination of the recession and the new green movement, there is a reason for this rise in gathering objects (Pesantes, 2009).
By comparing my views and experiences of growing up in an environmentally friendly atmosphere to the new trend/ lifestyle of “going green,” the green trend may not seem like a trend. People in the US have been environmentally aware for years. Most may think it starts with Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring from 1962, but its origins go back much father than that to transcendentalists’ ideas and park conservation set up by Theodor Roosevelt in 1903 (“A Brief History,” 2008). The new green movement has brought around lots of new ideas, including “green” houses. According to Spivey, green homes not only save money on gas and oil but have health benefits for the occupants (“Green Saves,” 2004). My house was built mostly with repurposed and recycled material, and also incorporates a passive solar design. As indicated by The Passive Solar Heating & Cooling Manual (1980), passive solar design must include two elements: glass on the south facing exposure and a material to absorb the heat collected from the sun’s rays. Although this subject has been around, it still is a current issue. In 2008, Ghosal, Sujata, Tiwari, and Sahoo concluded that alternative energy resources used for heating like passive solar systems are more cost efficient (p.1). Since this type does not collect the sun’s rays for reusable energy, the house is powered completely by electric. We also use a wood burning stove to heat the house during the winter. Using alternative energy methods not only helps with saving the environment but also with money, a very important concept during the recession. In my opinion, this is the reason why most people are choosing the consumption of green products, to save money. As Palmer pointed out, from a study done by the Shelton Group, 73 percent of the research participants said they bought green products not “to lessen my impact on the environment” but to “reduce my bills/control my costs” (“Forget Saving,” 2009).
Picture 1
A picture of my house of the South exposing wall
Trash-picking and repurposing are main elements used in my, as well as my family’s everyday life. Repurposing objects around the house instead of tossing them is a great way to save money while being environmentally friendly. This is how it goes at my house: instead of throwing away a broken outdated chair, just fix it, add a fresh coat of paint, and put it back in the room. I feel that this research is very appropriate for today’s economy and how “going green” is now become a lifestyle so many are choosing. According to Pesantes (2009), there are other reasons why people are dumpster diving besides the recession (“Artists and entrepreneurs”). My experiences along with supportive evidence can give a new perspective on the simplicities to the complexities of an eco-friendly lifestyle.
Picture 2
An aerial view of my house includes: green house and main house
When compiling the research, I noticed that there has been next to none on the actual link between trash-picking and the green movement. I have yet to find a research paper on this topic; however, I have found some great references that can be combined to create the support I need to complete this research. I have found one newspaper article, Pesantes’s “Artists and Entrepreneurs Race to Trash Bins to Search for Useful Items,” that discusses the rise in trash-picking and how it saves people money. With the lack of research that is directed to this topic, it needs more effort to find articles that may not seem related but do contain information that can attribute to my project. In Beinart’s book “Environment and History,” he wrote that in the 1960s environmentalism was popular in middle-class ideologies (p.94). By doing this research in the different areas, I want to target my project, which will reveal this new area of research to be something to look out for.
According to Beinart (2002), the Green Movement has sprung from environmental idea starting in the nineteenth-century. The literature from the New England transcendentalists is evident in the views of green academia today. It is built on the idea of anti-materialist skepticism (p.94). In “A Brief History of the Green Movement,” the author gives a sipmle description of how the Green Movement, as we know it, got its start. The article goes through interesting concepts of Environmentalism, starting with 1830s American Philosophy and the Transcendentalists to “treehuggers” then finishing with going green. By looking at these trends, it becomes evident that it is not a trend at all. “I’m not an environmentalist. I’m an Earth warrior,” (Darryl Cherney, Smithsonian,1990). This statement is a radical view on saving the environment. Palmer observed, today’s green consumer does not fit the stereotypes associated with being “green,” it is a wide range of people, “It’s the guy who buys one compact fluorescent light bulb a year all the way out to the girl in her Birkenstocks living in Idaho” (‘Forget Saving,” 2009). Green is not a trend.
There is other information that I needed to find, specifically on my house, to help support my knowledge on my living environment. The actual manual “Passive Solar Heating and Cooling” scientifically explains how passive solar energy works. Other articles, such as “Green Houses” and “Bringing Green Homes within Reach,” have aided me in cementing my argument on establishing a “green house.” The one that I found most helpful was J. Tibbetts’ piece “Green Houses.” This article explores how building designs can create homes that are more energy-efficient and have better quality air. The 1970s oil crisis gave way to creating buildings that reduced energy consumption. In the 1980s, studies were done on avoiding products containing Volatile organic compounds (VOCs). It also goes on to the waste from construction sites, but the amount it would cost to throw it away is more than construction workers can afford. It was the 1970s oil crisis that caused my father to build a home that is completely electric and incorporates passive solar energy to help heat the house.
Trash-picking and repurposing objects have always been a part of my life; however, before reading different articles, I did notice how trash-picking was appearing more in the media. After doing some research on the green movement, I started to notice the trend of trash-pickings connection, because of the recession and the green movement. Another great source was The Freecycle Network, which got its start in 2003, whose mission is “to build a worldwide gifting movement that reduces waste, saves precious resources, and eases the burden on our landfills while enabling our members to benefit from the strength of a larger community”(Freecycle, 2003). This is a network that is literally acting locally for the good of the whole, and their concept of “gifting” really puts a positive spin and allows for people to have a different look on trash-picking. Whether “gifting,” repurposing, trash-picking, or dumpster diving, it is obvious that from the literature reviewed that the green movement is causing people to think twice before tossing items.
For my methodology, I interviewed my immediate family members and used pictures that I took of the house to explain the significance that one family can make. I have used that actually names and stories of my family. By examining my family structure and how the individual family members see their life experiences, both in and out of the house. I also examined how I have seen myself grow in relation to the house. When I looked at the pictures, I was able to put into perspective of how and why the family did what it did in respect to the objects of the house as well as the house. The experiences of the family member were the main part of my primary research; I feel that the interview with my father, who built the house, was important to find out why he did what he did, this was the best place to start. This was the backbone of my idea and for the project to have turned out personal, that interview was the backbone of my research. My research will be important for widening ideas of reusing objects and localizing the big picture of saving the planet. My father had a different idea of the house than I who did not realize how different the house was until a later age. It is individuals and how they express themselves that my research started to take a turn and become my own. In looking at the different views, it brought forth how one family views trash-picking and how being environmentally aware can affect other aspects of their lives.
The Beginning
Picture 3
John in on the left, and is in the middle of building the house
John’s Story
It was in 1963, and we had moved from Atlantic City to Willingboro because my father was able to find work up in New York at the World’s Fair. One day he came home from work, and gathered my older brothers, he said that a water pipe had busted and the floors to the Formica House were ruined. So they all went up to scavenged what they could. I remember spending weekends helping my dad and brothers cleaning the plywood pieces. He used the plywood to floor the living room of the Willingboro house, because he hated those cement slabs on which all the houses were built. There were some left over, and when it came time to build this house I used the plywood in the pantry and put an oak veneer over it. That was my first time that I can remember ever trash-picking. However, it was my father’s friend, Conrad that would be his biggest influence on the idea of repurposing objects; his motto was “Do with what you have.”
While I was still in high school, 1972 I bought my first house, it just needed to be fixed up. It was a rancher and had a full basement. My father had always told me, “It was better to find a house and fix it up then to build one.” By 1983 township bought the house from us and part of the property. With the rest of the land I started construction on the house. The layout of it was determined by what I had to work with and what I was able to get. For example there was a bar being condemned so I worked out a deal with the owner and bought all of the steel beams for fifty dollars. But I also had other influences when designing, there was a house that I liked the layout of, it had a look out patio with an in ground pool.
It was Conrad that instilled most of my views on making objects form materials that I already own. Conrad used to use the old TV dinner pans as termite shields. He would create his own sheds from cardboard and tar, and use trees as the posts to keep them up. It all held up pretty well, I later got the land and went to tear them down, it was not easy. Inside of them he had a bunch of one horse engines, but I did not figure that out until many years later. He just had so much; I had to scrape most of it. Although there was some things that he did that I felt were unnecessary. For example, he made his own drill bits. He would take old nail, heat and form it, and then temper to harden the metal. He liked to work with what he had.
Mary-Margaret’s Story
It is funny how these things work out; it was through my father that I met John. 1980 I had just finished my first year of college and was going to help my father in the butcher shop. He was preping to open the shop and John was working in the appartment building next door. My father some how recruited John into helping him. One thing that I will never forget is when my father needed a place to wrap the meat, and John said he had a piece of stainless steel that would work, and he did, it was something that he just had lying around. It did not just stop there, John has had other very useful items just lying around, just amazing, he also contributed a marble block for the slicing station.
My father built the green house first; it was the test run to set up the angles for the house but also to see how the windows on the south exposure side would act with the sun. He knew that it would heat, but was unsure of how quick and how hot it would get.
Picture 4
A view of the green house, was built before the house, so the angles, North and South were right
The Living Room
Picture 5
The hearth with clock
Mary-Margaret’s Story
One of my fondest memories of this house was when my father was still alive and helping dad work on the hardwood floor. It was late in 1983 and John had a little wooden horse and set up in the living room for my dad to work on. He cut the wood floor to length and drilled holes in the tongue and groove flooring so he could just lay it and screw it down. This was one of the last projects my dad ever did, as he died two months after we were married.
Also in my living room is a very special clock. A very special aunt and uncle collected clocks. Their house made for some of the most interesting visits because every 15 minutes all the clocks in the house would go off. When my aunt passed away, my uncle gave me her wedding ring and before he passed away he gave me not his most valuable clock, but his favorite clock. The clock sits on the handmade mantel, to this day, that John made himself.
Aimee’s Story
I like to think of the furniture that we have in the living room as life-sucking. On a number of family events you can always find someone passed out on the couch sitting up. One of my favorite memories is when my one cousin manages to do just that. She ends up missing the whole party and then complains that no one woke her. If someone did wake her they would not be here. She said it was the fire that put her to sleep. It was just so peaceful.
The fire that puts our guests to sleep is built into a stone mantel place. The stone used was from the same house that John, my father, used to get design ideas from. After the house burnt down, he went in and just took what he could grab from the piles of stone. In some places I can still see carbon stained on the stone from that house fire.
Chelsea’s Story
Picture 6
Role top desk: 2 views
One of my favorite pieces of furniture in the house is the roll top desk. As far back as I can remember I have always had a fascination with it. When I was little, the desk was in our dining room area, which at the time was my mother’s office area as well, and I used to play and hide under the desk. I wanted to hide in the cabinet part of it, but the knob never stays on the door. So if I needed to open it, for a good reason, I had to get my mother’s help. One dayI asked my father where he got the desk, and he told me that his father found it. I look back now and become conscious that trash-picking was bigger than I could have imagined. My grandfather found the desk, along with two others, at Princeton University; they were just being thrown away. The desks date back to 1909, because my grandfather found a newspaper article in one of the desks from that time period. One my father swapped for a pool, and the other he gave away. The one sitting in the living room was fixed by my father when he was in high school. Looking in the picture above, it was not perfect because the back panel on the left side still has a slit in it.
Compiling the memories from the living room area gives an experience of just how something as simple as a stone brick can transform a family as well as the environment. My memories are what I am using to help formulate my knowledge involved in growing up in a green house. By viewing the rooms though individual experiences, it helped to bring the familiarity of the house as a whole. This house, because of its history, is more than just a “green” house, and is seen as a part of the family members. The role it has played should be recognized as a remarkable feat, that how a house and its occupants can play on the environment.
My father built the house. When he started, I am not sure he would know how “big” it would become. He is an interesting person and if seen walking on the street no one would grasp his impact on a house, a family and a community. When somebody wanted something, we would give it to them, and those people would call us. If they had something they could give back, we would take it. He never turned anything away. We could not say “no” because the next time they might have something, they might not call us. My parent’s house acted and continues to act like a storage area, for my family but also anyone that needed the help. The reciprocity that my parents established is different than anything that I have ever read about. I feel as though this reciprocity was needed to establish this repurposing identity that my father has in the community. We are a family of trash-pickers who inspired a community.
By looking at my home and my nuclear family as well as the use of supportive articles, I have concluded that trash-picking is very beneficial. I found that this mode of collecting is on the rise, which I believe shows that it is socially acceptable to reuse others’ objects. This trend is here to stay. I think that the recession has played a large role in turning the trend of repurposing into a lifestyle. I say this because of the values, such as giving objects away that are not needed instead of throwing them away, and being more aware of what is still useable to repurpose, that are being instilled into today’s generation and will be the primary reason that people will choose this lifestyle. The limitation that I found in my research was that it was just one family. I think it would be interesting to find another family that uses repurposed items to see if the same system was established. My recommendations, if another were to do this research, would be to go to garbage dumps to see some other of the effects that are noticed as to if there is a decline in the status, but I feel that even the making of a website to promote trash-picking is a definite change in the socio economics that are playing a role in how people obtain their possessions.
Here is the video that corresponds.
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