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{{Short description|1973 research project in Arizona}}
The '''Tucson Garbage Project''' is an [[archaeology|archaeological]] and [[sociology|sociological]] study instituted in 1973 by Dr. [[William Rathje]] in the city of [[Tucson]] in the [[southwestern United States|Southwestern]] American [[U.S. state|state]] of [[Arizona]].<ref>{{cite news |first= Witold|last= Rybczynski|title=We Are What We Throw Away |url=
==History==
Dr. Rathje (also known affectionately as "Captain Planet") and his students studied the contents of Tucson residents' [[waste]]
Such findings cast doubt on the reliability of
The project has since expanded to other American cities and has undertaken [[Excavation (archaeology)|excavation]] of [[landfill]] sites. Among many of the important results of Rathje, were his conclusion on landfill degradation and consumer waste patterns. For example, an intuitive idea that existed before Rathje's work is that people will waste less expensive food in times of economic recession. Rathje's landfill project proved this idea to be incorrect: when resources are scarce, people tend to buy larger quantities of -for example- beef-meat, when they are on sale, only to end up throwing it out again as they have bought
Another idea Rathje shattered is that of paper degradation in landfills. For a long time, it was believed that paper is a relatively safe and environmentally friendly waste product, degrading quickly in landfills. Rathje showed, however, that
==References==
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==Further reading==
*William Rathje & Cullen Murphy, <cite> Rubbish!: The Archaeology of Garbage</cite>; {{ISBN
*William Rathje, <cite> Once and Future Landfills</cite>; National Geographic, May 1991.
[[Category:Archaeology
[[Category:Archaeological sites in Arizona]]
[[Category:Waste
[[Category:Organizations based in Tucson, Arizona]]
[[Category:Archaeological projects]]
[[Category:1973 establishments in Arizona]]
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