SEATTLE (AP) — Researchers tracking 3,000 pieces of Seattle’s trash have found that a majority of that garbage ended up at recycling facilities.
In 2009, a team from MIT’s SENSEable City Lab began affixing electronic tracking devices to household items in Seattle, such as pizza boxes, printer cartridges and cellphones. They wanted to get people thinking about where trash goes once it gets tossed.
It turns out, some of that trash traveled long distances.
Computers and other electronic waste, for example, traveled on average more than 950 miles on their way to specialized recycling facilities. The MIT team even tracked one printer cartridge about 3,800 miles.
