A Conversation for Ask h2g2

The Colour of Rubbish.

Post 1

Pink Paisley

Given a pile of photographs of rubbish taken over the years, could you estimate the date accurately by the colour of the rubbish?

I have been thinking about this over the last couple of days (perhaps I should get out more!), having seen a pile of rubbish awaiting clearance, outside a house that I pass every morning.

It's that colour acid lime green that prompts me to ask. It is fashionable at the moment. Even I, not a well known follower of fashion, have it around my house.

In the pile of rubbish there are a couple of items in that colour. It is a pile of mid 2010's rubbish.

So what about other periods? Was 1970's rubbish particularly brown? 1980's avocado?

PP.


The Colour of Rubbish.

Post 2

Mol - on the new tablet

It's pretty well what archaeologists do, isn't it?

I'm not sure if I could date rubbish by colour. But 1970s rubbish, for example, would probably be edged with ric-rac braid.

Mol


The Colour of Rubbish.

Post 3

Xanatic

Victorian era rubbish was of course sepia-toned.


The Colour of Rubbish.

Post 4

paulh, vaccinated against the Omigod Variant

Rubbish of the distant future [circa 2442] will be almost transparent, as the light-blocking properties of steel give way to transparent or translucent varieties that let light through. Even chlorophyll will be see-through, allowing the same beam of light to pass through many plants and allow more photosynthesis with the same amount of light.


The Colour of Rubbish.

Post 5

paulh, vaccinated against the Omigod Variant

Or not.


The Colour of Rubbish.

Post 6

quotes

Contemporary rubbish will comprise largely of TV drama.


The Colour of Rubbish.

Post 7

Mol - on the new tablet

And crap books. Which means rubbish from this era will be fifty shades of grey.

Mol


The Colour of Rubbish.

Post 8

paulh, vaccinated against the Omigod Variant

What about thrown-away CDs and DVDs? Won't it take eons for them to decompose? I can imagine archaeologists of the future coming upon a deposit of old AOL demo CDs and thinking the people of our age were stark raving bonkers.


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