Garbage

SciShow Tangents

Mar 5 2024 • 45 mins

Trash, rubbish, waste, refuse...we have a lot of words for the gunk that goes on the truck, because whether we like it or not, humans make a lot of garbage. Get comfy with some grossness as we root around in garbage's past, present, and future. We're all on a path, you guys!

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Garbage

[The Scientific Definition]

Neptune balls

Laser broom

Wishcycling

[Trivia Question]

Eugene Poubelle garbage can ordinance in France

https://www.connexionfrance.com/article/Mag/French-Facts/Dustbins-are-named-after-French-recycling-innovator

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/poubelle

https://doodles.google/doodle/eugene-poubelles-190th-birthday/

[Fact Off]

Sulfur-crested cockatoos opening garbage cans because of social learning

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abe7808

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/963482

https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(22)01285-4

Hermit crabs are using plastic trash as shells

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969723075885

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/hermit-crabs-using-trash-as-shells-across-the-world-scientists-find-180983701/

[Ask the Science Couch]

Waste-to-energy methods: power plants/incineration, gasification, landfill gas, anaerobic digestion

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652617317316?via%3Dihub

https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/biomass/waste-to-energy-in-depth.php

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780857090119500090

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/5530419

https://www.epa.gov/lmop/basic-information-about-landfill-gas

https://www.nature.com/articles/nclimate2804

https://www.epa.gov/agstar/how-does-anaerobic-digestion-work

[Butt One More Thing]

Poop composition of gull flocks that eat garbage from landfills

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004313541730489X?via%3Dihub

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/558545

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