Join us for a free (trash) talk at the Museum of the Aleutians by Rachel Mills, a Rural Landfill Specialist!
Benjamin Franklin once said that the only two certainties in life are death and taxes - but he forgot about a third certainty: garbage. Since humans left their nomadic life for the amenities of permanent settlements, they have contended with the challenges surrounding trash disposal. Human history is rife with stories of waste management practices from the Bronze Age to 14th Century France and beyond, with varying level of success. This talk will include a discussion of the historical trash problems of the world and investigate the uniquely American waste strategies that tackled the miasma of the 19th century. Additionally, this talk will investigate systems used to teach humans to be consumers and the impacts of this consumption on the modern waste stream. Finally, this talk will look at the composition of our current waste stream in the US and Alaska and some of the lessons trash can teach us.
About the Speaker:
Rachel is a Rural Landfill Specialist with the DEC Solid Waste program. Although she has only been working with the program for three years, she has spent her life jumping into dumpsters, advocating for recycling, and participating in marine debris and litter clean ups across the country. She holds a master’s degree in plant biology from the University of Minnesota and a bachelor’s degree in biology from Central Washington University. She has also done graduate work in Biogeochemistry at the University of Texas at Austin and post-baccalaureate research on Rainforest Ecology with the School for Field Studies in Queensland, Australia. She will be starting another Master’s Degree program at UAA in Fall 2025 in Applied Anthropology with an emphasis in Garbology. Her research will focus on rural Alaskan waste practices and behaviors. Before coming to DEC, she worked on wetland delineations across the state of Alaska and taught Biology and Environmental Studies courses for the University of Alaska Anchorage and Alaska Pacific University.