Robin Nagle: What I discovered in New York City trash

18/11/2013. [VIDEO] TED
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA

Robin Nagle has been the anthropologist-in-residence at the Department of Sanitation in New York City since 2006.

Department of Sanitation workers on the job. Says Robin Nagle of the garages that house the trucks: “I even like the smell of the garage. It smells of garbage a little bit on a hot day when the trucks have come in, but mostly it smells of the oils that you use to keep a vehicle running smoothly, or, in the morning, of aftershave and cologne.” Photograph: Ryan Lash.

Department of Sanitation workers on the job. Says Robin Nagle of the garages that house the trucks: “I even like the smell of the garage. It smells of garbage a little bit on a hot day when the trucks have come in, but mostly it smells of the oils that you use to keep a vehicle running smoothly, or, in the morning, of aftershave and cologne.” Photograph: Ryan Lash.

New York City residents produce 11,000 tons of garbage every day. Every day! This astonishing statistic is just one of the reasons Robin Nagle started a research project with the city's Department of Sanitation. She walked the routes, operated mechanical brooms, even drove a garbage truck herself--all so she could answer a simple-sounding but complicated question: who cleans up after us?