WITHOUT TOAST

Originally Posted on Land + Artscapes, 9/1/17


 
Thwaites’ Toaster Project is outrageous and insightful. Reading it I could not help but wonder just how many toasters have been manufactured since the first in 1909.  I did some research and found that over 16,000,000 toasters were sold in the US between 2010 and 2016. Once I got started I could not stop. Approximately 700 people are killed due to toaster fires and electrocutions each year. Toasters are the most commonly broken household item. They are practically made to be broken and thrown away. They can be easily repaired but why bother when a new one can be had for about ten dollars.

I began to wonder if Thwaites’ self prescribed criterion, more specifically rule #2, could be used in reverse and for the opposite purpose, the total deconstruction of a toaster to its start. With parts made of mica, plastic, steel all transformed through various processes that render them unrecognizable from their original 'starter selves', how would one make a toaster completely vanish? I wondered if reverse engineering is used in the recycling of toasters and other small appliances and whether each of the 404 individual parts of more that one hundred different materials were sorted into groups of like materials and melted into some reusable compound. Is there an assembly line of sorts that can take apart household items? Or did all broken toasters get crushed and compacted to lie forever in the graveyard of household appliances and other trash?

A toaster is an accumulation of centuries of experiments, engineering, mining, inventiveness, capitalism and advertising to add crunch and texture to our breakfasts. This little item that we seem to think we can't live without can teach us a lesson about what we take for granted and the modern conveniences that will only be noticed if they were suddenly taken away. Maybe Thwaites' project will shed some light on how we can find smarter ways to divert electronics and household items from landfills and renew them with another, more robust starter life.