W.L. Rathje

Because of its color, texture, smell, and reputation, garbage has always attracted the media. The problem, of course, is that MSW folks who have cooperated with the media have often gotten burned! I came to realize that sad fact over the past 28 years based on a number contacts–probably more than 1,000–between the media and the Garbage Project. As a result, I have compiled 11 off-the-record rules for dealing with the media. Take them for what they are worth.

Rule No. 1: Nothing is ever "off the record." Let’s begin with an interview by Harper’s. They: "So you sort the garbage at the dump." Me: "Off the record, please, sanitation people don’t use the word ‘dump.’ They add layers of cover soil every day on top of the garbage to create a ‘sanitary landfill’." I also mentioned that all the landfills I knew of were vented for methane gas and that the more recent landfills were all heavily lined to prevent leaks. So after a two-hour interview about the Garbage Project, the headline was: "Garbagemen Get Really Steamed If You Call Their Garbage a ‘Dump’."

Rule No. 2: The less factual support there is for a statement, the more the media will use it. In 1971, before the Garbage Project officially started, a student analyzed two bags of trash and concluded that the bag from a low-income neighborhood showed more expenditures on educational toys and household cleaners than the bag of garbage from a higher-income neighborhood. In 1973, when the Garbage Project officially began, I mentioned the differences between those two bags as an example of the kind of issues we could study. A reporter from Psychology Today reported the "results" as facts and so has nearly everyone else who has done an "in-depth" article–no matter what I have said in protest. Ah, the rigor of the media!

Rule No. 3: Nothing in a reporter’s conduct or character will give you any clue to the nature of the final story. I remember so well the first national TV news reporter who did a story on us: Gail "something." Now there was a bad attitude! She did a quick face-to-face interview with me about 60 ft. from our garbage sorting area and then locked herself in her rental car while her crew filmed close-ups of actual garbage sorters. She thought that sorting was yucky, but her story was great–done well and with respect!

On the other hand, we were extremely pleased when the staff of the Bill Moyers’ "Creativity" series for PBS wanted to do a story. Imagine our surprise when the show prominently mentioned "dirty diapers" and "black lace panties" as our more significant finds! That was what we expected from National Enquirer.

By the way, only National Enquirer, Midnight, Ladies’ Home Journal, National Geographic, and Reader’s Digest ever had staff people call us to check the facts reporters put in printed stories, and only National Enquirer and Midnight ever changed anything based on what I told them.

Rule No. 4: Always have your own point of view ready– you’ll like yours better than anything media folks have in mind. You probably have a few good reasons why you are doing what you do. Be sure to tell the reporter; he or she might not have spent years trying to figure them out. Once you’ve been interviewed by someone who thinks you dispose of radioactive waste or by someone who wants to know what people in general think about aid to El Salvador based on what people throw out in Tucson or Milwaukee, you’ll see what I mean. Tell the reporter that you don’t know anything about radioactive waste or people’s views on foreign aid. You’ll sound boring, but rather than lose all the time they’ve already spent with you–maybe 20 minutes–they’ll want to know what you think is interesting to talk about.

Rule No. 5: You will never be able to edit, or even view, the final version. Even if the reporter gives you an advanced copy, which is exceedingly rare, there is always some media person farther down the line who will misinterpret what you said or did. For example, a newspaper reporter interviewed a graduate student about a Garbage Project study of alcohol consumption. Following the student’s request, the reporter gave him a full copy of his story, as submitted to his editor. It was a good story. Imagine our surprise when the newspaper article was not. The editor cut out important parts (for example, assurances of anonymity to sampled households) and changed the wording from even-handed to what I considered ethnic slurs. The Garbage Project survived without damage–perhaps because no one quite understood the new cut-and-paste editing job.

Rule No. 6: Media people have a hard time counting beyond one. The media has always considered the Garbage Project a one-man show. In fact, there are hundreds of people involved: student sorters, quality-control people, data analysts and managers, nutritionists, solid waste managers, market researchers, sociologists, health specialists, alcohol researchers, microbiologists, specialists in toxic substances, word-processing specialists, and people to answer phone calls, faxes, mail, and e-mail. For 27 years, there was also Wilson W. Hughes, my co-director, who designed and ran all garbage sorting operations since the project started. For more than two and a half decades, Wilson was the heart of the Garbage Project, but he was often not mentioned at all in reporters’ stories. One Wall Street Journal reporter spent four days with us, usually in Wilson’s company. The result? I was the focus of his front-page story; Wilson’s name didn’t even appear.

Rule No. 7: Never tell anyone what to say to a reporter–whatever they say on their own will be far more interesting. Although I was very worried about what students might say when the first reporters began to show up, I can now confess that I learned as much from the students’ answers as the reporters did. "I sort garbage to relax. It gives me a fresh outlook on life." "Diapers aren’t the worst. The worst ever is raw, rancid chicken." "The most bizarre thing I’ve found in garbage? That would have to be a frozen lizard. See, if bags are kept overnight, they are stored in the freezer over there. Anyway, I put the lizard on the ground in the sun, and it thawed out in about 15 minutes and ran away." By the way, I checked up on that story myself and found three other witnesses!

Rule No. 8: Always put on a happy face. Defensiveness is like fresh blood. If you have anything to hide, the media will most likely find it–if they figure you are worth the trouble. But two things will save you: (1) whatever they find will probably not be bad enough to keep anyone’s attention, and (2) we Americans just seem to have some kind of moral conflict with scuttling anyone who is always smiling. One example is Bill Clinton. And always remember what happened to the people who were far more somber or even grumpy, such as Richard Nixon.

Rule No. 9: Give media people plenty of freedom. They might like what you’re doing, but not as much as they like their own free time. Most media people who have flown into Tucson to do a Garbage Project story have something else they want to do besides talk to garbage people, such as drive out and take photographs of the desert, drop in on an old school chum, or drink beer and eat chili for breakfast. One reporter was an exception. He loved the Garbage Project and stuck with us like glue. He actually sorted garbage (another first), he attended three special sorting sessions, he partied with us, and–oh, yes–he was fired from his job two months later.

Rule No. 10: If reporters are good, they are quick and even enjoyable. Bad reporters take forever. I remember especially well one reporter for an evening TV news magazine in Seattle. He met me at my hotel in a tuxedo and white gloves. I knew I was in trouble. He drove me to a new Seattle transfer station. Once there, this icon of fashion decided it would catch the viewers’ attention if we did our interview standing in the slime at the bottom of one of the pits where the garbage was dumped. You guessed it: As we talked and filmed, a garbage truck dumped a load of debris right over us. I was resigned to my fate (a good rule in itself), but not the interviewer, who crouched to protect his rented tuxedo. Sadly, I guess he didn’t know about the water spigots that spray down each load that is dumped. As he stood up slowly, a pile of dirty paperboard boxes was pushed over on him by a stream of water that washed off both of us pretty good. The media can be all wet, but they are rarely dull.

Rule No. 11: Whenever you are out celebrating solid waste managers’ contribution to humanity, drink a toast to the media. No matter their inconveniences, when it comes to getting a message to the public, they’re worth it!