Monthly Statement:
January 2006, Month 5

89 barcodes accumulated in January. The collection book is 14 feet long with 509 barcodes. There are less barcodes this month because I spent 3/4 month out of town in San Francisco. I ate out more often and so have less grocery barcodes.

This month I put five months of data from my logbook into an Excel spreadsheet. I made several pie charts and am including two showing waste products and waste destination. The results show that 36% of my waste goes into the landfill and 48% of my waste is plastic and Styrofoam. I find this appalling! Most of the products that I use have some packaging to recycle or throw away; only 20% of my waste had none.

I plan to continue to collect the data but have not decided what direction to go after next month. The accumulation will be half done and perhaps I should make a deliberate shift in the pattern - trying to bring down the waste, for example. Also I am beginning to have some ideas for the artwork.

Process: I plan to collect every UPC (Universal Product Code) barcode acquired through my activities of the day, each day for a year.  These products may be purchased by me or given to me.