Pop Culture Shards From the Trash Heap of History

Memorable garbage from Woodsy to Wall-E.


Year

Trash

Treasured?

1969

Oscar the Grouch debuts on Sesame Street.

40 years later, kids still sing “I Love Trash!”

1970

Woodsy Owl implores kids to “Give a Hoot. Don’t Pollute.”

In 1997, Woodsy changes his tune: “Lend a Hand. Care for the Land.”

1977

Plastic bags first appear in grocery stores.

Everybody now: “Paper or plastic?”

1985

Garbage Pail Kids trading cards parody ubiquitous Cabbage Patch Kids dolls.

Up Chuck and Ray Decay make GPK “the gross-out phenomenon of the ’80s.”

1999

American Beauty features two-and-a-half-minute shot of floating plastic bag.

Film theorists still debating whether it’s a metaphor for a society hurtling toward ecological destruction—or just a bag.

2000

Wilson the volleyball becomes Tom Hanks’ best friend in Cast Away.

In a realistic touch, Wilson eventually washes out to sea to become turtle food.

2008

Wall-E cleans up the world by himself, one garbage cube at a time.

Spawned timeless products such as Wall-E flip-flops.

2008

As part of a $1.2 million office remodel, Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain expenses a $1,045 trash can.

Shamed into paying for the can, Thain says it was “a mistake in light of the world we live in today.”

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate