Man Is Wearing His Own Trash For A Month To Show How Much Waste One Person Creates

You know what they say – one man’s trash is another man’s suit. Or something like that anyway.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, the average person can generate up to five pounds of rubbish every single day, and to illustrate that point, green activist Rob Greenfield has decided to literally wear his trash on his sleeve, concocting a suit made out of garbage that he plans to wear every day for a month.

"I try to live a near zero-waste life. I go to extreme measures to create as little garbage as I possibly can. But for the month, I'm setting aside my ethics and my morals and instead just floating along in the breeze of consumerism," Greenfield said.

But although Rob claims to be floating on a breeze, perhaps waddling might be a better term to describe his movements as he wobbles his way through the streets of LA, clad head-to-toe in see-through bags made of garbage.

The unwieldy suit of trash – taped to his arms, legs, shoulders and torso – is made up of cups, bags, boxes, cartons and other discarded items that Greenfield has used throughout the month, with the activist claiming the bulk of the waste comes from leftover food packaging.

“For most people, trash is out of sight, out of mind – we throw it away and we never think about it again," Rob told AFP as he explained his situation to a group of confused onlookers. "This is to create a visual that shows just how much it adds up."

After 27 days of packing on the pounds, Rob claims that his suit currently weighs in at around 62lbs (28kg), and that resultant junk is making it increasingly hard to walk.

“It was about day 12 that I started to really feel the burden of consumerism,” he said, noting that the average person in the US creates around five pounds of waste per day.

“I really started to feel the weight and see the visual and just say ‘wow, it’s astounding how much our trash really adds up'.”

Rob’s aim with the stunt was to present himself as a kind of living billboard, so that ordinary citizens could see just how much impact their day-to-day lifestyle was having on the environment.

And by the sound of things, he’s succeeded.

"If we all had to carry all of our trash around, after a while, we'd be very aware of what we're dumping into the landfills, into the ocean," said Trelawny Dios, a visitor to the city, who added she'd 'absolutely' consider changing her own habits after seeing it.

"It was a little disgusting for me to see how much I'm wasting and how many things we're all throwing away," Beverly Hills resident Davina Kangavari said.

"I felt like a wasteful loser when I saw him and I will not be drinking coffee out of a paper cup anymore," Melinda Spigel said.

When it comes to saving the planet, Greenfield insists that the best way to help is to start small. Simply minimise your waste one reusable coffee cup at a time and you’ll be on the right track in no time, he claims.

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Topics: Environment

Tom Sanders