- For the last month, I have been wearing every single piece
of trash that I create.
Why?
The average US American creates nearly five pounds
of trash per day.
I wanted to see what that would look like.
(air whooshes) Every single piece of trash
that I create goes into the suit,
and I wear it everywhere that I go.
And recycling, that goes in too,
because most recyclables aren't actually recycled.
Let's see what kind of trouble I get into.
(calm quirky music)
This was specially designed by a woman named Nancy Judd.
She specializes in trashion, which is trash fashion.
So this suit was designed to be able to hold
up to 135 pounds of trash,
because that's what the average US American creates
in a month.
The suit is designed to be expandable
to grow as the trash grows.
So I'm gonna go ahead and weigh in.
I was 153.7 pounds.
And now with the suit, it's 164.2.
So this suit weighs 10 and a half pounds.
All right, so it's time to add the first trash.
This is all of the trash that was created
in making the suit.
I just weighed, and it's about three pounds.
And lastly, the scale that I had to use to weigh myself.
This is a little scary, 'cause I've just gotten started
and I've already got five pounds of garbage on me,
and I'm not sure what's gonna happen.
(chill music)
(air whooshes)
(air whooshes) So I'm less than 24 hours in,
and I have to say, I'm actually blown away
by the amount of trash that I've created,
and I'm not even trying to create trash.
I'm just walking through society,
following along what other people are doing.
(calm jazz music)
I'm here in Hollywood, California, because I want to inspire
and influence the rich and the famous
to rethink their waste.
Am I allowed to come in and buy something?
- Nothing's leaking, right?
- No, have any questions?
- Pretty interesting costume.
- I'm living like the average American
for a month, but I'm wearing every piece of trash
that I create. - That's great.
No more landfills.
- That'd be great.
(upbeat jazz music)
Hey, there. - Hi.
- How are you? - Good, thanks, how are you?
- Good, I'll have a frappuccino.
- And name for the order? - Trash Man.
(upbeat jazz music)
- What do you do with toilet paper?
- So toilet paper goes down the toilet as usual.
- What do you do with recycling?
- The recycling also goes into the trash suit,
because most of our recycling isn't actually recycled.
- Can I take a photo with you?
- Absolutely.
(upbeat jazz music)
- Nice, good statement.
- Are you Recycle Man or Trash Man?
- Trash Man. - Trash Man.
I guessed it right.
(calm quirky music)
(censor beep)
- Normally you would never find me at a McDonald's
or creating all of this trash
or living this consumeristic life.
I eat mostly unpackaged unprocessed foods.
I grow some of my own food.
I forage food from the land.
In fact, I even did a year where I grew
and foraged everything that I ate,
but right now you find me at McDonald's,
because it's the most popular restaurant
I think in the entire world.
So it really represents consumerism.
I really believe that this visual will catch people
and really wake them up.
I was dreading the burger,
but it's not as bad as I was expecting actually.
(air whooshes) My goal is not to be
a smelly example, but a visual example of our waste.
So I wash everything before I add it to the suit.
And for food waste, I weigh that
and then I replace it with bags of dry rice.
(air whooshes) It's the end of day six,
and I am overwhelmed with the trash that I've created.
I took it all out of the suit in order to clean it.
And I'm just boggled.
This is six days worth of living like the average person,
and I've already created about 20 pounds of trash,
which is actually substantially less
than the average person would've made in this time.
Can't believe that I have another 24 days.
(calm jazz music)
(upbeat rock music)
All right, so I'm out in Hollywood,
and I'm gonna see if I can get into a club.
(upbeat rock music)
Am I allowed in? - No, can't let you in, bro.
- How come? - My boss already said no.
(upbeat electronic music)
- I'm gonna try to get into Chateau Marmont
which is one of Hollywood's most iconic celebrity hotspots.
I was checking to see if the hotel bar is still open.
It's closed?
Okay, cool.
All right, it's too exclusive.
They didn't even gimme the time of day
or have any understanding of what I am doing.
So, no luck there.
I'm about to try to get into the Viper Room,
which I've been told is like one of the fanciest,
most exclusive clubs.
So I walked up,
and the bouncer absolutely loved what I was doing.
In fact, she wanted to take a picture of me at her door.
So I thought I'm definitely getting in.
A little blown away.
After all that, rejected.
And I'm gonna give it one last try
before calling it a night.
(upbeat music)
- Hey, how's it going? - Going good.
- So I'm living like the average consumer
for a month and I'm wearing all the trash I create.
So I was wondering if I can come in.
- (murmurs) Should be good. - Okay, sweet, thanks.
(upbeat music)
All right, there's one place that accepted the Trash Man.
That was a success.
Had some conversations inside the bar
and even did a little dancing.
You know, for most people, trash is outta sight, outta mind.
They never have to think about it.
It's just kind of ironic
that I'm just a walking billboard of what they're doing.
And then simply by taking responsibility for my trash
and holding onto it, they don't allow me to come inside.
(calm jazz music)
Just kidding.
I don't actually sleep in my trash.
(air whooshes) It's day 13,
and I am very tired and very much struggling.
I feel super disconnected from nature,
and I am craving some healthy food.
I have not been eating nearly as much vegetables
as I'm used to.
The suit is getting heavy.
I'm up to 34 pounds.
There's definitely an element of like,
how am I gonna get through this? (yawns)
(calm jazz music) (air whooshes)
(air whooshes) I am signing up
for an exclusive dating app for influencers.
I read online that only about 8% of people get accepted.
All right, name,
Trash Man.
Actually, I might need to put my real name to get accepted.
Enter your Instagram.
What do I do for work?
Inspire positive change.
Oh, too many characters.
All right, I'll put activist.
Okay, we will notify you regarding your application
via push notification.
We'll see if I'm exclusive enough,
and we'll see if any one wants to date the Trash Man.
(air whooshes) So I didn't have any luck
with the online dating apps.
On Raya, no responses, no messages,
but I do have a date lined up.
It's a friend who set it up for me.
Her name's Jess, and we're meeting for ice cream.
I'm actually a little nervous right now.
We'll see how this goes.
Hello.
- Hi!
- You wanna share a hug? (both laugh)
- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you as well.
So have you ever been on a date with a trash man?
- Well, I mean, yes. (laughs)
- Okay, well, I'm trashy on the outside,
but I'm not trashy on the inside.
- Oh, I mean, we'll find out, right?
(calm acoustic music)
- I will say that I have felt a little trapped
over the last days.
You know, imagine this is the trash suit for one person.
- I know, oh God. - Imagine the trash suit
for the entire human race.
- People aren't thinking about this.
- It is unconscious.
So what's your zero waste catering?
- It mostly is on sets,
'cause like that's like my background.
- How do you approach relationships?
- Pretty gung-ho.
What are you looking for?
- So relationships are tricky,
because I do a lot of extreme activism, and I travel a lot.
'Cause my way of life is relatively extreme,
I haven't been in a relationship for four years.
I've designed my life to be relatively unattached.
There's not many things that I commit to long term.
Wanna help me up?
(Rob groans) - Oh, wait.
What did I do?
Oh God! (Rob laughs)
I got you!
- There we go. (Jess laughs)
- All right, well, it's been a great date.
- Yeah.
- The date was good.
We had some nice deep conversation.
We talked about the trash suit,
but we talked about a lot of other things as well.
And I would definitely go on a second date with Jess.
- I would go on a second date.
Much more to explore.
(gentle music)
- Los Angeles is a place where people come to make it.
There are so many people out here just trying
to get in front of the cameras, promoting themselves.
That's ultimately what I'm doing out here as well,
trying to figure out ways to break in, to get on the media,
to connect with celebrities that have influence.
And I have to say it really doesn't feel good.
I'm trying to promote an actual message.
For me, it's a balance between spreading this message
and making sure to not get too caught up
in the rat race of it all.
(air whooshes) (calm music)
The scale reads 218.4 pounds,
and that means I am wearing 54 pounds of trash,
less than I was expecting, but it is still overwhelming.
(air whooshes) (upbeat music)
So we're about to show up at Craig's
which is one of the fanciest restaurants in Hollywood.
And I'm here, because the paparazzi is waiting
outside for celebrities.
So I'm gonna roll up and see
if I can't get the attention of the paparazzi.
Good evening, everyone.
Good evening.
So amazingly, that was a huge success.
I have to say
that Hollywood has totally embraced the Trash Man,
and that I've become a fun,
but awakening part of the culture out here.
(air whooshes) This morning, I woke up
and my neck and my upper back is in a pretty bad place.
I don't really know how I could do this
for another like nine days.
I would say maybe some people would call it injured.
I think the reason why is 'cause I decided
to ride this bull last night at a bar,
and that was just a bad idea.
(chill music)
(air whooshes)
Normally, I live a near zero waste life,
and most of what you see here
is single use items and plastics,
and these can be avoided by carrying our own reusables.
We can also shop unpackaged for our food.
We can buy items secondhand rather than new.
And one of the biggest ones is composting.
(air whooshes) (calm music)
My trip to Los Angeles has been a success.
I've come out here and I've put trash
in people's face and gotten people
to really think about the truth behind our trash
and how we can live differently on this earth.
The campaign was covered by hundreds of media outlets
all over the world.
- I'm Jada Montemarano here with Rob Greenfield.
- Yes. - Can I give you a trash hug?
- Ah, yeah. - Aw.
(slow quirky music)
All right, it's time for the final weigh in.
I just weighed myself, and I'm at 155 pounds,
which is about the same as I started with.
I am up to 238 pounds with the trash suit on.
So that means that the total weight
of the trash is 72 pounds.
That is about two and a half pounds of trash per day.
And the average person creates closer
to five pounds of trash per day.
So what you see here is actually half as much trash
as the average person creates by weight,
which is absolutely astounding, because just look at this.
The idea is to look at this and say,
is that what my trash suit would look like?
What do you think?
(dramatic music)