Have you ever wondered what it would actually look like to lie in seven days of your own trash?

Yeah, me neither.

However, looking at these startling photos made me wonder.

According to the EPA, the average American produces more than four pounds of garbage a day. Well, photographer Gregg Segal decided to pair this upsetting statistic with visual impact, creating his ongoing series “7 Days of Garbage.”

Segal’s photography project displays Californian neighbors, friends and strangers lying in piles of their own trash—seven days of it to be exact.

The artist’s statement:

“7 Days of Garbage is a series of portraits of friends, neighbors, and other acquaintances with the garbage they accumulate in the course of a week. Subjects are photographed surrounded by their trash in a setting that is part nest, part archeological record. We’ve made our bed and in it we lie.” ~Gregg Segal

Check out some of these honest and appropriately shocking images below. Maybe it’s time to seriously consider our own archaeological trash records, if we haven’t begun to already.

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Editor: Catherine Monkman

Photos: imgur