On my trip to UK, I took several photos of dustbins whenever I went. Then the other day, I was pondering whether animals have a soul like we humans have. It got me thinking about plants, trees, and insects. Then I began to look a little deeper, if we know that animals, plants, trees talk to each other they must have some form of consciousness, but does that mean that everything around us has a conscious awareness. I mean everything that we have in form of technology come from this earth, therefore we would say that the earth is alive with consciousness; if that is the case, then my dustbin has a consciousness, doesn’t it?
But again, a bin has no life, it just sits in the corner and I doubt many would communicate with it. We speak to our cars or motorbike on the other hand and we yell at them, praise them, and even mourned when they die. All these are just a collection of lifeless parts and only comes to life when life is in it. A dustbin is nothing but a bin full of dust.
Since lifeless parts may come to life when life is in it, I placed my hand inside my dustbin today and spoke to it a little to see if it would respond. I am not nuts, and unfortunately it did not. I wonder if a dustbin would need the same loving treatment like we do to our vehicles. What if it spat out the dust and garbage we fill it with, when it becomes annoyed? But again, does a dustbin have feelings? Below is my collection of dustbin photos.
Picture 1: A dustbin outside Bramber House, University of Sussex.
Picture 2: Dustbins at University of Cambridge
Picture 3: Dustbin at Clacket Lane Service Area, Tatsfield, Westerham TN16 2ER, UK
Picture 4: Dustbin near Chichester, University of Sussex.
Picture 5: Two dustbins below The Bridge Café, University of Sussex.
Picture 6: Dustbin at Churchill Square Shopping Centre, Brighton.
Picture 7: Dustbin at Royal Pavilion Gardens, Brighton
Picture 8: Dustbin at Brighton beach
Picture 9: Dustbin at King’s Rd, Brighton, UK
Picture 10: Dustbin in one of the classes at Fulton, University of Sussex
Picture 11: Dustbin at Northfield Residence, University of Sussex
Picture 12: Dustbin at United Nations Headquarters in Africa, Nairobi Kenya
Picture 13: Dustbin at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi Kenya.
These photos can tell many stories and one would have many interpretations of them. I have told my own story with these photos.
I have to say, Job — I think you are onto something =) A bin, its placement and its condition can say so much.
I’m thinking primarily about:
— My kitchen bin and the relationship it portrays between me and my housemate
— How as we were growing up we were in awe of Germany’s public bins (they were very early to have recycling bins on the street) and as such, Germany holds a special place in my mind for being both organised and very environmentally friendly and forward moving
— How our bins on the London Underground are a representation of our government’s futility at combatting terrorism — the bins there are just metal rings holding a loose transparent plastic bag. Always got to be transparent so we can those bombs, you know. But what are the chances of a bomb being put in a bin these days, anyway?
— And it also made me think of this image that we saw this week circulating amid criticisms of the World Cup in Brazil:
Despite their innocent appearance, the dustbins are very critical in the issue of waste management. Dustbins, also provides an indicator of how we relate with waste. The designs which I think have evolved over time, shows how we have come to relate with waste. Lately, we have developed such a great sense of responsibility in waste management. Coming to think of it further, the bins serve as the link between private waste management and public waste management. The bin, in my view, is the point at which waste exits the private world of the household and enters the public domain.
Every bin in the photos tells a story. For instance, who are they for, what can and can’t they contain? These bins are designed to their specifications in terms of size, technical construction and so on. In the last photo, the bin has a solar panel on it and an advertising space on its side. This is such a changing aspect of dustbin design.
Think of the dustbin literature, the written rules in most dustbins. For instance, ‘Plastics ONLY’, ‘No hot materials’ and so on. Think of the colors and signs of the dustbins that indicate the proper destination of different waste. Think of the shape of the hole in the dustbin that makes it difficult to throw in certain wastes.
The bin is such an important item in our life. It is an indicator of the valuing of various things, moralities of waste, symbolic importance, environmental responsibility, social organization and much more. With this, one can develop a very good research on dustbins.
When Job started collecting these picture, I was wondering what sense he was going to make of it; especially when he would grad the camera from me just to snap a “dustbin”. As it stands now, the whole collection activates some kind of imaginative assumptions of dirt- what we may want to refer to as “metaphorical speaking picture”.
Samuel Beckett wrote a play called Endgame featuring an old married couple, Nagg and Nell, who live side-by-side in dustbins. This goes to demonstrate that dustbins may, in some circumstances, have characters as well as souls
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMpNeJOOL4o
The dustbin at some point becomes a metaphor for the stagnation and filth in which humans find themselves in this world, where they are only consumed in time, where every search for essence reveals the cyclical irony of existence. man is trapped in a filth where every movement is an unconscious movement towards the inevitable. Man’s life in this world is an index of filth on a bumpy-chested-path with mirage of momentary happiness which must be cut short once the of the dustbin is covered and ready for disposal.
This is simple yet just brilliant. What does the dustbin say about its user, about the community where it is, about us, about dirt? These pictures are giving me ideas. Welldone!