Garbology: The study of trash

 NPR -   What makes humans different from other species? To environmental engineer and Santa Clara University professor Stephanie Hughes, it's the fact that we produce things that can't be used again in nature. We break the cycle. Professor Hughes doesn't even like to use the word, "waste."  "I'm not very pleased with that terminology because really, humans are the only ones that have waste streams," Hughes says. "In the rest of the world, this planet operates cyclically: waste from one animal becomes nutrients for another."  For many Americans, throwing something away means that it's gone forever. But Professor Hughes wants students to learn that this is not always the case. Hughes has taken her students to tour a paper recycling plant, sewage treatment plant and household hazardous waste facility.