Sophia Stasiak & Julia Youssef

10 May 2021

Research

Schultz, P. W., Bator, R. J., Large, L. B., Bruni, C. M., & Tabanico, J. J. (2013). Littering in

context: Personal and environmental predictors of littering behavior. Environment and

Behavior, 45(1), 35–59. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013916511412179.

Recycling, trash, and litter are some of the most common topics discussed when relating

to the subject of environmentalism. According to research done for Environment and

Behavior, “Litter is any piece of misplaced solid waste” (Schultz et al., 2013). This means

anything ranging from a small candy wrapper to an automobile can be considered trash, and can

therefore cause an impact on the environment when abandoned. This same article talks about

littering throughout the United States as whole. It turns out that roadside littering in particular is

attributed 70% to individuals (52% to motorists and 18% to pedes- trians), 21% to unsecured

loads, 5% to vehicles themselves (e.g., tires and vehicle debris), and 3% to unsecured containers

in the nearby vicinity (Schultz et al., 2013). This research shows that human action is the largest

contributor to littering, meaning that individuals have complete control over how they impact the

environment by disposing of their trash.

Millard, E. (2015). Waste watching. University Business, 43-46. Retrieved from

https://universitybusiness.com/waste-watching-in-higher-ed/.

This article gives information on recycling and its impact in college towns specifically. A

majority of college universities in the United States used to receive money for recyclables

shipped to China, but China changed its policies in 2013 enacting a ban on “foreign rubish”

(Millard, 2015). This left a majority of universities struggling to find ways to make a profit off of
recycled materials. Schools that used to receive $55 per ton for cardboard and $45 per ton of

paper are now only receiving approximately $1 per ton for cardboard and no money for other

recyclables (Millard, 2015). Because of this dilemma, some universities are trying alternative

ways to recycle, such as waste reduction and donations. However, this ban has caused a lot of

universities to sweep the ideas of recycling under the rug. This research has shown how

important it is to understand how the monetary value of recycling has become more important

than its environmental value.

Kent State University. (2021). Waste/recycling. Kent. https://www.kent.edu/sustainability.

Kent state has provided students, staff, and community members a section on their

website that explains how they go about recycling on campus. According to the website, Kent

State University is a single-stream campus, meaning different recyclable materials can be placed

in the same recycling bin on campus (Kent State University, 2021). This is a very beneficial

process for students on campus, but the logistics of the single-stream recycling process are a bit

more intensive. There is a link to a video on the website that goes through a step-by-step process

of single-stream recycling showing how the recycling plants separate materials. Kent State also

takes pride in their recycling, as Kent State's recycling rate is 36%, higher than both the national

(25%) and state (29%) recycling rates (Kent State University, 2021). This site is a great resource

for students to understand the benefits of recycling on campus, and it provides more insight into

the ways universities are trying to combat littering.

HA Schult Museum für Aktionskunst. (2021). Action “Trash People.” HA Schult.

http://www.haschult.de/.

HA Schult is a conceptual artist who is most known for his performance and object art,

especially his work with garbage. Schult’s most famous exhibition is called Trash People. Life-
sized figures made of trash roam around the world representing how people are all refugees of

the consumer society (HA Schult, 2021). He explains how he produces trash and we will all

someday become trash. “The poor collect the trash of the rich, the more poor men collect the

trash of the poor. And the most poor men dig a hole in the Sahara for warming up with the

hungry fire of the garbage. Overall is the black sound cloud of barking hell dogs. At the end it

will be covered by sand and a year later a gulf hotel will be constructed there” (Ha Schult, 2021).

Trash People is installed in numerous parts of the world, and the meaning behind it is to force art

into your everyday life and to focus the attention on the issue of massive consumption of

Western society. HA Schult also created a piece in 2001 titled Love Letters Building which

involved him in wrapping a former Berlin Post Office in thousands of large oversized love letters

that were obtained from the local public (HA Schult, 2021). This artwork in particular shows

how one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

University of South Florida. (2021). Vik Muniz. Graphicstudio.

http://www.graphicstudio.usf.edu/gs/artists/muniz_vik/muniz.html.

The second supporting artist that portrays our theme of recycling is Vik Muniz. Vik

muniz is a Brazilian artist, photographer, and sculptor who uses materials such as diamonds,

tomato sauce, magazine clippings, dust, dirt, and chocolate syrup in his pieces (University of

South Florida, 2021). In his work, he recreates famous works of art while referencing paintings

and celebrity portraits. He uses these trash-based materials to demonstrate that not all artwork

has to be completely original and that it can expound upon pre-existing ideas through recycling

and manipulating materials in everyday life. Artist Muniz hired local catadores, or garbage

pickers, to gather specific items to construct his mosaics (University of South Florida, 2021), his

most famous being his own take on Death of Marat by Jacques-Louis David. In 2010, Muniz
developed a film documentary titled Waste Land which emphasized the importance of the

creation process in regards to Muniz’s Pictures of Garbage series. The process included Muniz

working with trash pickers for three years at one of the world’s largest garbage dumps, Jardim

Gramacho in Rio de Janeiro. The artist received criticism on his Sugar Children photograph

profits since the children in the photographs continued to live in poverty, but this inspired him

more to use this project to improve the subjects lives. The way Muniz expands his practice and

uses different contexts and mediums redefines art in its own entirety. His appeal to please the

general audience is something that makes his artwork more meaningful to look at.