Gregg Segal's '7 Días de Basura': How Much Trash We Produce in a Week

People and Their Trash: How Much Waste Do We Produce in Seven Days? (Gallery)

A striking photo series that makes us confront the waste we generate in just seven days.

Lisandro Pardo August 28, 2020

Think about every package you open, every wrapper you discard. Each lid, each label. Empty bottles, milk cartons, opened cans. Coffee jars, tea bags, and much, much more. Now, imagine taking the trouble to accumulate all that waste for a week. How much trash do you think you generate? California photographer Gregg Segal turned that question into a powerful photographic project called “7 Días de Basura”. The final result is very powerful, and forces us to ask ourselves what we can do to change this trend.

Children, young people, adults. Whites, Blacks, Asians. Rich, poor. We all have something in common: We are garbage-generating machines, and the worst part is that we don't fully visualize that. The paper bag ends up in the bin and we forget about it, just like the orange peel, the disposable cup, the mineral water bottle... and everything else.

Gregg Segal's work goes beyond a statement or a warning. The images from his “7 Días de Basura” are striking, to the point that several participants ended up “editing” their trash bags out of shame. The problem is global, but the solution definitely begins with us. If you want to see more of Segal's work, visit his official website.