…[another]  cognitive problem is: Every single thing you see is future trash. Everything. So we are surrounded by ephemera, but we can’t acknowledge that, because it’s kind of scary, because I think ultimately it points to our own temporariness, to thoughts that we’re all going to die.

So says Robin Nagle [anthropologist-in-residence at New York City’s Department of Sanitation (DSNY), since 2006]…

For more, please read this fascinating interview with Robin in The Believer.