Sept. 21

Preliminary results of a trash-tracking project are being unveiled in exhibitions in both New York and Seattle.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology´s SENSEable City Lab recently placed electronic tracking tags on various types of waste in both cities in an effort to get people to think about what they throw away.

Exhibitions exploring the results are now open at the Architectural League in New York and the Seattle Public Library, MIT said.

"Our aim with Trash Track is to reveal the disposal process of our everyday objects," said Carlo Ratti, director of the SENSEable City Lab. "The project could be considered the urban equivalent of nuclear medicine where a tracer is injected and followed through the human body to reveal how a system functions."

The school worked with Waste Management Inc. on the project. More information is available at http://senseable.mit.edu/trashtrack/.

Contact Waste & Recycling News senior reporter Jim Johnson at 937-964-1289 or jpjohnson@crain.com

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