Accession : The formal process of logging an object into a permanent museum collection with a unique identification number.

Anthropocene (noun): The current geological age, viewed as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment.

Anthropogenic Litter: Any manufactured or processed solid material discarded, disposed of, or abandoned in the marine environment.

Archive (noun / verb): An intentional repository used to house primary source materials; in this context, the act of rescuing, indexing, and permanently preserving ecological evidence to counter society's collective amnesia regarding waste production.

Assemblage (noun): A curated grouping of unrelated found objects that collectively tell a thematic or artistic story.

Deep Time (noun): The concept of geological time, stretching across millions of years, which highlights the terrifying lifespan of synthetic waste compared to human life.

​Desalination (noun): The extraction of deeply embedded mineral salts from shoreline specimens using fresh-water baths to preserve brittle plastics from long-term cracking.

Desiccation (noun): The controlled, heat-free drying process used to remove moisture from a shoreline specimen without melting or warping its structure.

Ecocide (noun): The mass destruction, contamination, or loss of ecosystems by human agency, committed with knowledge of its severe and long-term consequences; the broader environmental crime scene documented by the archive. Context: "The accumulation of permanent synthetic fibers along the shoreline stands as physical evidence of localized ecocide.

Ephemera (noun): Objects originally designed for short-lived utility (e.g., single-use wrappers) preserved past their intended lifespan.

Flotsam (noun): Floating wreckage or debris from a ship or cargo that washed up after an accidental maritime event.

Ghost Gear (noun): Abandoned, lost, or discarded fishing gear—such as nets, lines, and pots—that continues to trap marine life.

Institutionalization (noun): The process of elevating everyday garbage into a formal historical artifact by archiving it inside a sterile, clinical museum framework.

Jetsam (noun): Debris deliberately cast overboard to lighten a vessel in distress, which later washes ashore.

Macrolitter (noun): Visible plastic waste items larger than 5 millimeters in size.

Materiality (noun): The physical reality of the objects, focusing on how their textures, weights, and states of decay evoke an emotional response from viewers.

Mechanical Degradation: The physical fracturing of brittle plastic into smaller pieces due to the abrasive force of waves and sand.

Microlitter (noun): Tiny particles of plastic, often resulting from fragmentation, measuring less than 5 millimeters.

New Materialism (noun):

Nurdles: Lentil-sized, pre-production plastic pellets that escape into waterways and serve as a major component of coastal pollution.

​Persistence Matrix (noun): The environmental lifespan of an indestructible object, measured by its physical resistance to natural decay.

Plastiglomerate (noun): A hard rock matrix formed when plastic waste melts and fuses naturally with shoreline sand, gravel, shells, and organic detritus. Context: "A campfire on the rocky beach generated several unique plastiglomerates."

Polymer Detritus (noun): Weathered fragments of synthetic plastic materials that resist chemical breakdown, shifting across ecosystems indefinitely.

Polymer Fingerprinting: The use of chemical spectroscopy (like FTIR) to identify the exact plastic type (e.g., HDPE, PET) of degraded beach trash.

Provenance: The documented history of an item's origin, including the exact coordinates, date, and environmental context of its recovery.

Refuse (noun): Matter thrown away or rejected as worthless; the primary material focus of the archive, encompassing all discarded artifacts that resist natural disintegration. Synonyms (Trash, garbage, waste, rubbish, litter, debris, detritus, junk, dross, offal, scrap, sweepings, dregs, rejects, castoffs, flotsam, jetsam)

Slow Violence (noun): Environmental destruction that happens gradually and out of sight; a delayed destruction scattered across time and geography rather than an explosive event.

Source Apportionment: The analytical practice of tracing a piece of waste back to its geographic origin, manufacturer, or industry.

Strata / Stratum (noun): The physical layers of rock, sand, or compressed trash in the Earth's crust that reveal a chronological timeline of human consumption.

Taphonomy (noun): The study of how items decay, transform, and interact with their environment from the time they are discarded to when they are recovered.

Techno-fossil (noun): A human-made artifact that has entered the geological record and will persist as a fossil into future epochs. Context: "The white plastic fork was cataloged as a Tier 02 techno-fossil."

Typology: The systematic classification of artifacts based on shared physical characteristics, forms, or consumer functions.

Vitrine (noun): A protective glass display case used to isolate, elevate, and highlight common beach trash as a subject of critical study.

Weathering: The physical, chemical, and solar breakdown of materials caused by prolonged exposure to saltwater, wind, and UV radiation.

Wht-trSH (noun / art concept): Discarded single-use items (caps, styrofoam, straws) stripped of color or branding by solar radiation, used to draw attention to the power  the "white cube" gallery or museum space as well as point back to other white colonizing forces ironically referred to as the "Five White Gifts" (flour, sugar, lard, dairy, salt) which has expanded to include alcohol, rice, and the white race itself.

Wrack Line (noun): The high-tide trail where organic materials (like seaweed) and anthropogenic trash wash up together on the shore.

​Wunderkammer (Cabinet of Curiosities)(noun): A historical display method mixing natural specimens and artificial oddities, ideal for juxtaposing shells with marine plastics.​

UN/making (noun / verb): The artistic and critical practice of actively dismantling consumer culture, industrial habits, and waste production through acts of reclamation, sorting, and institutional critique.

Vitreous Shard (noun): A fragment of manufactured glass that has been physically weathered by wave action and sediment abrasion; commonly known as sea glass.