The Garbage Game

The Garbage Game
http://www.gothamgazette.com/games/garbage.php

My mentality about garbage really doesn't go beyond putting my recyclables in the be blue can and my 'garbage' in the gray can. After I put the cans out on the curb each Thursday night, my role in the process stops (except for paying my bill every other month...) This game, although specific to the garbage production and processing in New York City, sheds a lot of light on what happens after the garbage truck drives away.



This game puts you into different roles. The first is a familiar role of consumer, or garbage producer. This part of the game prompts you to deal with different types of garbage like plastic water bottles, disposable diapers, leftover food items, etc. Your task is to weigh the different options for what to do with this stuff. For example: you have received a new cell phone with your contract renewal. What will you do with the old one? Each choice you make throughout this part of the game adds up to the total amount on garbage you produce.



The next part of the game allows you to make the decisions of the city's Sanitation Commissioner - how will the garbage that is put out for pickup be transported, processed, or "Trucked to Jersey." Each decision you make along the way is weighed against the other choices you didn't make. It turns out that even with a simple little flash game, you begin to realize that there is no overall good solution to dealing with our societies' garbage. The best way to really deal with it is to not produce so much in the first place; a solution unattainable by any one part of the chain of consumption.


In the end, your game choices are summarized in terms of transportation miles, modes of transport, total cost, total volume, and total CO2 emissions. And this is only a small part of New York City's 64,000 tons of weekly garbage.
All in all, this game is good to raise awareness of the larger impact of garbage on our society after pickup occurs. It seems like this would actually be a good topic or area of study for a field trip for students. Take them out to the landfill and let them marvel (probably not really a good idea...)