Are Garbage and Trash the Same Thing?

Dragonish - Disappointed Instead of Defenestrated

Jill in Shelton, Washington, says that when she lived in Southern California, she understood the word garbage to mean food scraps, with trash referring to everything else collected curbside. Historically, garbage has referred to the wet, disgusting stuff you throw away, such as offal or vegetable matter. The word trash has been used to refer to many things over the centuries, from overripe fruit to a worn-out shoe. This is part of a complete episode.

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