Garbage collection
An assortment of facts + songs about waste
A couple weeks ago I went to an event hosted by Soapbox Seattle dedicated to waste (and how to reduce it). I learned some fun facts about waste in Seattle and King County that I wanted to share with you, along with a playlist about garbage (because why not).
GARBO FACTS + DISPOSAL TIPS
In Seattle, all of our garbage is sent by train to a landfill in Arlington, Ore. These dedicated garbage trains run five days per week.
The rest of King County garbage is sent to Cedar Hills Regional Landfill in Maple Valley, Wash. The landfill is projected to be full (and need to close) by 2030. That being said, the landfill has been “closing” for decades, according to reporting from the Seattle Times. *
King County has a team dedicated to reducing the amount of garbage sent to the landfill. Their ambitious vision is for a zero-waste King County. One of their approaches is to push companies that make consumer products to take responsibility for how the products are disposed of (called “extended producer responsibility”).
Tip! Avoid recycling anything smaller than your fist, as it can slip through the grates in the recycling compactor.
Tip! You can recycle aluminum foil! How to do this: Collect clean foil, compress it into a ball, and once you have a ball larger than your fist, throw it in the recycling. (Let’s be honest, I haven’t been doing this. But it’s a nice idea!)
Tip! King County has a tool to help you figure out what to do with items destined for landfill, recycling or compost sorting.
* More notes from my research: King County Solid Waste Division is currently planning to expand the landfill (while remaining inside the current 1,000-foot buffer zone that separates the landfill from homes and businesses). These plans would extend the landfill’s life until 2038. Construction of the new landfill area could begin in June 2025, according to King County’s webpage on the matter (last updated in March 2022).
PLAYLIST
Listen to the playlist on Spotify.
In this song, Nash likens a relationship to trash. And she doesn’t shy away from some down-and-dirty images to really drive her point home. “Impure toxic devotion runs through me like a river to a plastic ocean,” she sings. Her love is poisonous, and she herself is fake. “I’m trash! Trash! Trash for you!” is a powerful and freeing refrain.
To me, this song is about one person, among a generation of people, who feels like their future has been corrupted by previous generations. And what better way to capture that feeling than likening it to the types of things you might find tossed in a landfill! This song is catchy and singable without ever being predictable or boring. The clean, jingly guitar riff at the beginning dissolves into something more grungy and distorted at the end. I love this song!
“Taking out the trash to the man/ Give the people something they’d understand.” In this song, Smith relates to people through one of the most quotidian, unglamorous parts of life – garbage. It’s not a very flattering portrait of humanity.
Don’t waste anything fresh on me, Flynn insists in this song. I’m fine with scraps. Then he finds his perfect match – a girl who only eats half her meals and gives away the rest. This song is folksy, driving and lyrical.
It was such a pleasant surprise to stumble on this song while searching Spotify with keywords “garbage,” “trash,” and “dumpster.” It describes the sensory experience of being at a dump — crunching sounds, unpleasant smells, a mess of colors and textures — but the melody and instrumentals are relaxed and sweet, almost like a lullaby. What a contrast!
This song seems to be about trauma dumping, though they never use those words specifically. “Feeling so strong you have nowhere else to go/So you dump them out in a scattered mess of debris.”
Ripped clothes, safety pins and even garbage bags became the ultimate aesthetic for punks in the 70s and 80s. So it’s no surprise that punk rockers sing about trash. Pick up the trash, the singer says to their lover. Clean yourself up. The song is both jaded and desperate, disparaging and sympathetic.
Here, the singer is burdened by the expectations they held for the world and for their future. So they’re throwing away things that weigh them down — starting with spoiled milk and old olives — and they’re starting fresh, by planting a garden. The nonsense lyrics “oom sha la la” make this song feel a little off-kilter and playful, despite its heavy themes.
I didn’t know about the trains!!! So much to think about!
Great read T! I love a kate nash recco and learning!