1. Garbage Demographics William Rathje and Cullen Murphy

2.  Garbage is part of an ecosystem whose properties depend on:  Weather  Season  Rate of growth WHAT PEOPLE REALLY DO

3.  Garbage sampling can reveal:  The percentage of households that fall victim to advertisements.  Households that have stockpiles  Households that buy the same product over time  Households that didn’t like a product

4.  Documenting illegal aliens  Household data already collected to aid the Garbage Project  “Multiplier” GARBAGE TO CHECK THE CENSUS

5.  Estimate population size of prehistoric cultures WHY ARCHAEOLOGISTS?

6.  Plastic accounts for 0.2 pounds of the 2.1 pounds of garbage that is thrown away in a day.  Equation: household size=0.2815xplastic  NO definite way to determine proportions between men and women in a given society. THE GREAT EQUALIZER

7.  Average discard of toys and packages  Child’s clothing PROPORTION OF CHILDREN

8. Analysis Example

9. Name of ArtifactDescription Pop CanSilver, Sprite diet Water JugPoland Springs, gallon Water bottleBlue, green label, Poland springs BottleSeltzer, blue label, red writing, Description: The person that produced this garbage is apparently recycling bottles used in the house. The majority of beverages that this person drinks is water. There may be a child in the house because of the smaller bottles of water.