Everyone's got a lot to throw away. You can buy and access things as easily as you can discard them. For a period of time, I thought I could 'retail therapy' myself through life. Window shopping as never been easier with the big wide web! It didn't last long. Once I got the long-awaited item in my hands- the little thing that kept me looking forward to at the end of week- they were just things, just ...stuff. Juicy Couture has cute stuff, but when am I going to use a cheap plastic bottle with its logo on it?
These persistent questions made me curious about the things we deem as trash. The stuff we do not care about anymore. More importantly, the stuff I don't care about. As I tracked and recorded the things I plan to throw away, I found that I actually don't have as much bad things to say about the items, and that made me curious. (get it? 'Trash Talk,' give me 20 bucks now!)
Learning about Sarah Newman's findings inspired me more to pursue this topic. According to her research, because trash is such a offhand, overlooked aspect of our lives, we assume ancient societies also dealt with trash. Newman lets us know that that is not the case.
On the other hand, “7 Days of Garbage” photo series by Gregg Segal shares a similar theme of how we develop insight into ourselves and others by the things we throw away. As Newman states: “It’s surprising how much the students can tell about the people—the products and packaging reveal details about family composition, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, gender roles, tastes and hobbies, etc.” For this project, we had to document the items we were throwing away and describe the story we had with them, both before and after disposal. We reveal a lot about ourselves in the process of doing that. Segal’s project aims to do something similar, albeit with a more terse approach. TWP requires us to view our trash from an archaeological perspective, making us reflect on why we decided to throw away a particular object. This is a sentiment I think Newman would appreciate, as it opens up a conversation about our trash habits.
The artist Vik Muniz’s philosophy also inspired me, and how that integrates into the broader thesis towards how we treat the things we deem useless, which reveals a lot about us as a culture. Muniz's take on artists and their art in the modern age is interesting. Like how the invention of the camera had forced traditional painters to focus more on the meaning behind their artwork over the final product, which eventually led them to venture into more abstract art movements like expressionism and cubism, the rise of mass production made artists reevaluate their work too: "When machines and specialized assembly-line workers started effectively making things in series, artists were forced to shift their focus from the objects to the processes of their making."
I was especially intrigued by the phrase "looking for meaning that can't be recycled." At first, I thought they were pointing at the contention between material and virtual reality, but I couldn’t see how meaning could be recycled within nonphysical preservation. Now, with the state of the art being constantly questioned by entities like big corps and AI, I think I can begin to grasp the idea better. It’s about authenticity and preserving authenticity.
Toasted Bills started this website out of personal interest. Eventually, the website branched into something more. Toasted Bills covers as an university student at a university she cannot name. There, she enjoys learning things and hanging out with her friends. She is very passionate about helping others, whether directly or indirectly. She likes cute things, but is careful not to hoard (it's not easy when your fellow friends also enjoy collecting!). She also likes to draw, listen to music, and read literary fiction. Lately she's been interested in fantasy books. Her favorite artists are Depeche Mode, BTS, and Alcest... wow so many boy bands. iamamiwhoami's album Blue changed her life. She has a fat black cat that likes to sneak outside during the day.
© 2026 Toasted Bills. All rights reserved.