NEW YORK (AP) — New York City’s sanitation department has its very own anthropologist in-residence.

New York University professor Robin Nagle is a garbage guru who studies the refuse along the curbs. She says trash reveals a lot about the 8.5 million residents of the nation’s biggest city.

Nagle says the city’s garbage reflects “a throwaway culture that’s going too fast.” Modern Gotham tends to treat still useful items — from furniture to electronics to clothing — like discarded paper coffee cups.

For garbage pickers, it’s a treasure trove of still edible food, furnishings and clothes.

Nagle spent almost a year getting her hands dirty alongside sanitation workers. That’s how she got a close-up look at what she calls New York’s “most important uniformed force.”

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