Urban Digestive Systems. Towards the Sentient City. - MIT ...

7. Small lithium battery trucked from Seattle, WA to a mecury recovery facility inRoseville, Minneapolis.9. Lithium battery leaving transportationfacility toward highway 90.10. Lithium battery transported onhighway 90, highway 29, highway 80and then on highway 35.Iowa, always reporting from interstate highways.There were some missing reports, whichcould have resulted from the tag temporarilylosing signal, either from being buried deepwithin the truck or entering an area without cellphone reception. In northwest Des Moines, thebattery arrived at yet another US Postal Servicebuilding. It stayed for several hours beforeheading north to Minneapolis on the evening ofNovember 1, as shown in Figure 10. Travellingat full speed along I-35, it arrived at an Eaganpost office on November 2.Finally, on November 3, the lithium batteryarrived at a hazardous waste recovery facilitycalled Mercury Waste Solutions in Roseville,Minnesota. (Figure 11) Mercury Waste Solutionspartners with Waste Management to runits LampTracker program, confirming that thevolunteer used a special LampTracker containerto dispose of the battery. The sensor sent itsfinal reports from the facility; we concluded thatthe battery and tag were likely separated here,and that this was the likely end of the battery’s3000-mile journey.These accounts illustrate the rich tracesthat can be gleaned from tracking two8. Lithium battery starting at a U.S.post office.11. Lithium battery end-of-life destination:Mercury Waste Systems.household hazardous waste items, and howtheir meaning is subject to interpretation.Geographic coordinates alone lack context;their meaning has to be inferred by makingeducated guesses, comparing the reported locationswith those of known facilities, and bydeducing transportation modes from movementpatterns in time and space.When combined with the physical characteristicsof the object being tracked, thesetraces can be used to estimate the ecologicalimpacts of the transportation process, suchas the amount of carbon dioxide emitted orenergy used in transportation and disposal.Yet, these accounts also show how difficult itis to draw conclusions from anecdotal traces,since many events in the removal process,such as how efficiently trucks and train carswere packed with transported waste, remainunknowable.Reflections[Trash Track] made me more aware of detailson how to dispose of certain items. Before, Ihad been too lazy to look up where to take anold laptop or light bulbs. I didn’t want to throwCardboard BoxDisposed atCentral Business DistrictSeattle, WA 98164DeploymentMon Oct 26 8:00 pmCentral Business DistrictSeattle, WA 98164En RouteTue Oct 27 0:53 amCardboard BoxLast seen at:Tue Oct 27 8:53 amAllied Waste RecyclingSeattle, WA 98134Pioneer SquareMon Oct 26 20:53 pmInternational DistrictTraveled3.3 MilesCategoryCardboardYesler TerraceAtlanticThe recorded trajectory of a piece of cardboard on its way to the material recovery facility in South Seattle. Image by E RoonKang and Eugene Lee.102–103 MIT Senseable City Lab Trash Track