Discard

This weekend is the annual “spring cleaning pick-up” weekend in Grand Forks. Residents of the community can discard anything they want at the curb. This creates some interesting assemblages. Local junk collectors roam the streets before the official pick up occurs gleaning interesting or valuable objects.

Here’s one in my neighborhood. The first photo is when it was initial set out and the second was at noon the next day.

Next year, I think I’ll organize a group of students to comb the streets and photograph these discard piles. This should tell us something about various domestic habits (what kinds of goods fall outside of traditional discard practices), consumer practices, and recycling.