Humble trash bag contains myriad decisions of design, usage, discard in the secret life cycle of things

weekly solid waste collection

The weekly collection of solid waste at the roadside of one’s house is a convenience that has been provided for more than 50 years. But there was a time before than when a person stoked a fire in an empty 55-gallon drum or “burn barrel” as we called them. People would burn their fallen leaves, and discarded kitchen scraps in a backyard pit, too. Houses with a fireplace might routinely feed newsprint and other paper and wood scraps, and later plastic, too, on the fire grate. But now each week we hear the sound of the compacting motor as it presses the bags of refuse into a solid mass that will be disgorged at the landfill site (or ‘long term storage solution’ as an acquaintance jokes, since little of it actually biodegrades in the layered environment starved of oxygen needed by bacteria to consume waste) about 18-20 miles distant.

Regarding the cycle of mass design, production, distribution, marketing, purchase, use, and eventual disposal, there are design decisions all along the way. First there is the invention, which is a solution to a perceived or existing problem. Materials must be created and capabilities tested to suit the uses in question. There may be a desire to offer a product at more than one price point, based on name or brand or materials or colors. Selling in multiple language markets must be taken into account as well. Then at the opposite end of the life cycle of a thing there comes a decision point when the owner must either discard, destroy, sell or give to another owner, or recycle if the materials have some reuse. By the time it appears in a bag at the side of the road, so many decisions over the thing have passed: from conceiving a product, executing a design, producing, distributing, marketing, maintaining, repairing or discarding in some manner. Thus the bag of rubbish at the side of the road is a sort of palimpsest with layers of human decisions in and on it.

Another gas station to feed your car's appetite for fossil fuel

Like some Jurassic dinosaur, the yellow arm of the excavator digs down into the property adjacent to the Kroger grocery store that recently was purchased in order to build a store-branded fuel station to give food shoppers an incentive also to buy their fuel under the same brand name. The height and visual bulk of the machine is maybe the size of a T-Rex and puts the surrounding cars into relative scale, as well as the person in the background.

kindergarten to 5th grade; at last the graduation ceremony!

There were many proud parents, grandparents, friends and other family members on hand at the cafetorium (cafeteria by day, auditorium by night) to celebrate the conclusion of elementary school for these 5th graders (1st grade begins at age 6, so most of these will be 11).
     The weather outside was not overly hot, but the confined space soon warmed up the event. Things began with the procession of the 2 classrooms of 25 to 30 students each.

The program included a list of names, a few group photos from this year's field trips, and then the order of events for presenting awards.

order of events in the ceremony (click picture for full size)

Most awards had just a handful of the 50 or 60 kids to be recognized. But a few required 2 or even three rows to form at the front. As each name was read the the kid approached the Mistress of Ceremonies to collect a certificate, the audience gave their applause. At the end, one final applause for the entire group was given. The awards with many certificates were (a) safety patrol, and (g) Presidential Academic Excellence. In this last case only a few kids remained behind, passed by in the roll call; conspicuous not for being awarded, but the opposite, for lacking this award of their peers.

Safety Patrol Award (crossing guard) for serving 12 weeks or more in all weather

At the conclusion of the clapping and certificate presentations, the 5th graders filed off the stage and around the edges of the room in order to view the projected slideshow of the school that had just ended. Following that each kid was given a mini-This Is Your Life episode (a few slides: baby photo >grades 1 to 5 photos; one or two family event photos, and so on). Thanks to the emotive music, it was easy to feel caught in the rapid flow of time being presented and to realize how quickly the days have flown - sort of a digital mono no aware (Japanese aesthetic of transience and the nature in everything, quite apart from the way we frame things)

Holding a ceremony for those leaving behind the elementary school is not so old a custom as it is in Japan, for example, and it dates to 2000 or so in this small mid-Michigan town. For the middle school the practice perhaps began earlier. But awards and recognitions, along with a gown and hat with tassel belongs most historically to high school commencement ceremonies to launch a young person into the world; these days very commonly to higher education or further training, but not so frequently a few generations earlier, for example, in the 1940s or earlier.

14 years old - The award ceremony to conclude Middle School, 8th grade

Middle School awards assembly for the 8th grade, the future high school graduating class of 2020

overview, click for full size image (2-frames, stitched panorama)

On the final days of the school year in June, parents and friends are invited to an awards ceremony. At the middle school the 6th and 7th graders meet separately, one after the other, during the school day. But for the oldest students, the event takes place after the workday for most families, starting at 6 p.m. It runs about 90 minutes.

     The program bulletin with spot color on double-sided, single sheet in 7 pitch font size included sets of recipients who paraded onto the stage expeditiously to collect handshake and word of encouragement, plus certificate or other token. Groupings included a locally conceived program called LINKS for peer to peer support, particularly to match confident kids with ones discouraged by academic, social, emotional or other difficulties (73 names, mainly girls).

Next was the Perfect Attendance Awards (missing just 3 hours of the entire scheduled school year (13 names), with one of these asterisked to indicate perfect attendance during all 3 years of middle school. Third came recognition for 8th graders who served as student councilors (6 names). Next were 7 kids who met under the auspices of the local chapter of Kiwanis Club #707 in order to plan and carry out good works in Builders Club. Three students were selected by staff and teachers for special mention in making the school run well, being helpful to teachers, staff, and peers. The academic excellence awards recognize the 47 students who averaged 3.85 during their 3 school years at the middle school. The Foundation for Excellence T-shirts were reserved for the 17 kids whose cumulative GPA for the 3 years was 4.0 (thanks to bonus points; extra credit, and so on). There were 27 kids recognized for doing well in both 2 of 3 sports seasons this past year, and maintaining 3.0 GPA (and being nominated by their coach, too).

Then there was a prize for fundraising prowess (selling magazine subscriptions to family, friends, co-workers brings a partial rebate to the school for its expenses). High sellers were promised either 1000 of tuition at colleges and universities found on a list, or for the very highest sellers the promise was for 2500 toward tuition. The final award was for one boy and one girl at the discretion of the principal, from among nominations made by teaches and staff.

 

Refreshments (cookies and punch) followed after this first hour of clapping and extolling excellence, to be followed by recap photo story of the past 7 months at the school, projected on the big screen in the cafetorium (cafeteria + auditorium: doubles as stage area).

The motto for the school, staff, teachers and students, found printed on the back side of the program page, reads "Working as a team to build the future!" So the sense of direction is what is to come, but depends on the constructive efforts of today, and not a solo effort, but one that joins many hands. The metaphor of construction project can be extended by comparing the durability, safety, and stylish and high functioning results for well planned and well built work, by contrast to the performance coming from shoddy work, lack of craftsmanship, and ill thought through plans. Excelling in one's work and the fruits of those labors can take many forms, particularly among middle school students, where their bodies grow bigger, take on new shape, and identities are tried on within one's reference group and pool of expectations in a given family, community, or school culture. Dream suddenly spring into mind, are inspired by others, or may be sparked by learning experiences of reading, observing, discussing, or completing certain assignments.

     The minds and hearts of these young people often are open, impressionable, and inquisitive. Much like the way a blueprint comes to life at the earliest stages by staking the land and hanging string to mark elements to be placed or built, levels to be straightened, and so forth, so too for young learners - they build their own ambitions, boundaries and self-definition first from gossamer strands which are easily stretched, tried, changed, or torn asunder. A kind word, and encouraging response, and welcome smile all can move the creation of self from the fragile threads to something quickly to grow solid and increasingly well defined; something which others can see, react to, and thus affect the builder's next steps.