Garbology
Archaeology can be defined as the study of ancient remains in order to understand past human activities and lifestyles. This gives archaeology a close connection to history. Garbology on the other hand is a study that aims to give insight into people after studying their trash or refuse.
Through garbology, one can be able to make conclusions about the lifestyles of those who dumped the trash. The main advantage garbology has over archaeology is that it provides actual evidence of people’s actions. This as opposed to archaeology where focus is on things people may have done.
In this case, garbology was conducted on unknown occupants of an off campus apartment. Their week’s load of trash was investigated. No other information about the occupants was previously known. This is what was found in their trash; several juice boxes, several milk cartons, a number of half-eaten chips packets, an empty nut packet, and a can of hair product.
There was also two condom wrappers, two cigarette stubs, two bottles of expensive wine, two used pens, an on old laptop bag, and several soda cans. In the trash bag, there was an unusually large amount of half-eaten bread products and several dozens of eggshells. There was also a lot of coffee residue on the trash.
The first thing one seeks to find out about from this trash is the population of the occupants. The juice boxes found in the trash mostly came in instances of two. The number of eggshells is also indicative of the same thing. From this, one can conclude there are two occupants living in this apartment and they both happen to have similar schedules.
The other thing that can be learnt about the occupants of this apartment is their feeding habits. The garbology reveals that the occupants only consume processed foods. This means that either they eat in restaurants or they exclusively consume processed foods. This also indicates that the occupants of this house are not much into home cooked meals.
This could be because they lack cooking skills or they do not prefer it. Owing to the fact that there are instances when simpler meals like eggs and nuts have been cooked, the more logical deduction would be that the occupants of this house lack commendable culinary skills.
According to this study, one can estimate that eggs and bread are consumed in this apartment almost daily. This implies that the occupants eat breakfast at home and it is mostly consisted of eggs and bread.
The two bottles of wine found in the trash indicate the expensive taste of the occupants. Their assumed pricing of the wine implies the occupants have middle class tastes. The brands of their cereal and breads bags also support this view. In addition, the fact that they can afford to eat out on several occasions a week shows that they are not doing so bad financially.
The condom wrappers indicate that either one or both occupants are sexually active. Condoms are also associated with short-term relationships meaning that one or both of the occupants may be in such a relationship. There are only two cigarette stubs.
This means that none of the occupants is a habitual smoker but they may have smoker acquaintances. Overall, the occupants of this apartment are not much into conserving and recycling as their trash indicates. This can be learnt from the unsorted trash and the large volumes of wastage.
In conclusion, garbology offers an unbiased insight into the activities and lifestyles of any particular person or a group of people. Through the components of their refuse, a lot can be learnt about those who dumped it. For this reason, garbology is a vital tool in day-to-day human oriented deductions like police investigations.