THE HIDDEN LIFE OF GARBAGE
Heather Rogers
Journalist Heather Rogers has written articles on the environmental effects of mass production and consumption for the New York Times Magazine, the Utne Reader, Architecture, and a variety of other publications.
Her 2002 documentary film Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage has been screened at festivals around the world and served as the basis for a book of the same title. Named an Editor’s Choice by the New York Times and the Guardian, the book, published in 2005, traces the history and politics of household garbage in the United States, drawing connections between modern industrial production, consumer culture, and our contemporary throwaway lifestyle. Americans produce the most waste of any people on Earth, says Rogers, but few of us ever think about where all that trash goes. Rogers endeavours to show the inner workings of the waste stream, from the garbage truck to the landfill, incinerator or parts unknown. She points out that recycling, once touted (hyped/advertised) as an environmental lifesaver, “has serious flaws,” and has done little to mitigate garbage's long history of environmental damage.
BACKGROUND
Landfill: Dumping Site
GROWS: Geological Reclamation Operations and Waste Systems
WMI: Waste Management Inc.
Human Beings have always faced the question of how to dispose of garbage. The first city dump was established in ancient Athens, and the government of Rome had begun the collection of municipal trash by 200 C.E. Even as late as the 1800s, garbage was, at worst, simply thrown out into the streets of U.S. cities or dumped into rivers and ditches; in more enlightened communities, it might have been carted to foul-smelling open dumps or burned in incinerators, creating clouds of dense smoke.
Today, more than 60 percent of the solid waste in the United States ends up in landfills, and the amount of waste seems to keep growing. According to the Energy Information Administration, the amount of waste produced in the United States has more than doubled in the past thirty years, and it is estimated that the average American generates an astounding 4.5 pounds of trash every day.
SUMMARY
The Hidden Life of Garbage discusses the waste disposal in the U.S. and how dangerous it is getting. Land dumping has been the primary disposal method for many years because of the low cost. Land dumping is when the waste is dumped into a landfill. A landfill is a carefully designed structure built into or on top on the ground in which trash is isolated from the surrounding environment. This isolation is accomplished with a bottom liner and daily covering of soil. A sanitary landfill uses a clay liner to isolate the trash from the environment. Although the methods of waste disposal have improved over time, getting rid of garbage is quickly becoming a big problem because our methods of waste disposal are only a temporary solution. The waste that cannot decay naturally, just sits there and begins to build up. Incineration (burning) is another method used in waste disposal. However, this poses another problem because it fills the air we breathe with dense smoke, which is toxic (harmful) to our environment. The essay also talks about how the major waste disposal corporations try to keep problem hidden from the general public. They keep it hidden because it would cause problems for the corporation if the people actually knew what was happening. “If people saw what happened to their waste, lived with the stench, witnessed the scale of destruction, they might start asking difficult questions.”
According to Rogers, the place where the dumping takes place is called “working face”. A group of trucks, earthmovers, machines, steamrollers, and water tankers stay and work there. These machines are trying to fill the earth with garbage. The garbage buries the real surface of the earth. Many birds fly over the rotten piles of garbage. When we walk wrappers, plastic bags and old shoes poke through the dirt and the smell is sticky and sour.
Waste Management INC. called GROWS landfill has covered 6,000-acre garbage treatment complex. It dumps almost forty million pounds of municipal wastes daily. It is a high-tech and high capacity power. It uses landfill compactor, which looks like a bulldozer. Landfill compactors moves back and forth and cuts fifty tons waste into the earth and pitches the waste into the surface of the earth. The place is kept tidy with the help of thirty-five-foot-tall fencing. Water-mixed chemical is sprayed around it by a small machine into the air.
Rogers argues that the technique used by GROWS are less dangerous than those used by previous generations. But the fact remains that these systems are short-term solutions to the garbage problem. While they may not seem toxic now, all those underground cells packed with plastics, solvents, paints, batteries and other dangerous materials will someday create problems and they have to be treated well because the cells will not last forever. Most of the cells are expected to last somewhere between thirty and fifty years. There is an easily seen problem in waste management. The lavish resources used to destroy the used commodities look wonderful but they are not environmentally friendly and they do not provide a permanent solution to the problem.
Please watch a YouTube Interview with Heather Rogers on The Hidden Life of Garbage
TEXTUAL SUMMARY (EXTENSIVE READING)
Every day, early morning, heavy steel garbage trucks chug and creep along neighbourhood collection routes. A worker empties the contents of each household’s waste bin into the truck’s rear compaction unit. Hydraulic compressors scoop up and crush the dross, cramming it into the enclosed structure. When the rig is full, the collector heads to a garbage depot called a “transfer station” to unload. From there the rejectamenta is taken to a recycling centre, an incinerator or, most often, to what’s called a “sanitary landfill.” Land dumping has long been the favoured disposal method in the U.S. as it is relatively low cost to bury.
The great majority of castoff go to landfills, these places are not meant to see by the public. Today’s garbage graveyards are isolated, guarded, masked. They are also high-tech, and, increasingly, located in rural areas that receive much of their rubbish from urban centres that no longer bury their own wastes.
Rogers explains reasons why landfills are tucked away, on the edge of town, in otherwise untravelled terrain. If people saw what happened to their waste, lived with the stench (stink), witnessed the scale of destruction, they might start asking difficult questions. Waste Management Inc. (WMI), the largest rubbish handling corporation in the world, operates its Geological Reclamation Operations and Waste Systems (GROWS) landfill just outside Morrisville, Pennsylvania — Up here is where the dumping takes place; it is referred to as the fill’s “working face.” Masses of trailer trucks, yellow earthmovers, compacting machines, crushes, and water tankers populate this bizarre, thirty- acre nightmare. Mixing in slow motion through the surreal landscape, these machines are remaking the earth in the image of garbage. Scores of seagulls hover overhead then suddenly drop into the rotting piles. The ground underfoot is torn from the metal treads of the equipment. Potato chip wrappers, tattered plastic bags, and old shoes poke through the dirt as if floating to the surface. The smell is sickly and sour.
GROWS uses many methods of removing trash. One of the methods it uses is state-of-the-art method. This method is used to prevent contamination of groundwater. GROWS is one of a new breed of waste burial sites referred to as “mega-fills.”
This has made environment much better in comparison to the traditional system of disposing garbage, but this is not 100% solution. This can work for only 20-30 years. The main point being dealt with is the issue that in U.S.A. has a problem with trash, lacking the importance of recycling. Since most people don’t recycle, the amount of garbage in the U.S. is getting higher at a rapid rate, causing problems to our environment, health, and society. Although the methods of waste disposal have improved over time, getting rid of garbage is quickly becoming a big problem because our methods of waste disposal are only a temporary solution. The waste that cannot decompose naturally, just sits there and begins to build up.
Incineration (burning) is another method used in waste disposal, however, this poses another problem because it fills the air we breathe with dense smoke, which is toxic to our environment. The composition also talks about how the major waste disposal corporations try to keep the problem hidden from the general public.
The recycling industry gives people the impression that everything is OK. That "something is being down" and stops people questioning why so much stuff is produced in the first place. Why don't we have reusable bottles? Why do we need disposable razors?
Good post.
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