Northeastern University is overrun by trash, we just don’t know it. While waste here is well-managed and well-hidden, it lurks below our consciousness and multiplies daily. The average undergraduate student produces 650 pounds of waste a year. With an undergraduate population of approximately 16,000 students, the quantity of waste produced across campus is mind boggling.
While 23% (887 tons) of Northeastern’s waste is recycled, and 21% (817 tons) is composted, the remaining 56% (2,132 tons) is sent to landfills. These numbers may be hard to quantify but they are significant. The majority of our trash will stay on the Earth for as long as it will be around because it will not biodegrade.
This project raises awareness of the Northeastern community’s waste by visualizing the campus as constructed from and overrun by its own trash. This waste has even found a new life in the form of unsettling trash monsters, invading the nooks and crannies of our public spaces to deliver an important message to anyone who finds them.
