1. plastic is evil
2. nothing 'biodegrades' in a dry dump, it just gets buried. ours is dry mostly because of the fact that we live in a desert, but otehrs are designed to be wet dumps because of higher average rainfalls, so the moisture level of the landfill allows for a bit more decomposition. still, an anthropologist, whose names escapes me right now, found an intact hot dog dating at least 25 years in the fresh kills landfill. that stuff you hear about the twinkie is true- even biodegradable things like, i don't know, jiffy pots, will probably never biodegrade so much as they'll get crushed into oblivion. you can easily find readable newspapers 30 years old in many landfills, though i didn't get a chance to date any material at DADS because we weren't allowed to get near the actual 'dumped' material.
3. one cell at the DADS landfill had to be leveled from its height of 400 feet because it disrupted a flightpath from DIA.
4. an average of 1200 trucks tip at DADS every day. each truck holds a fuck lot of trash- i can't remember the weight. tons.
5. hazardous materials will sometimes be detected, but most of the time paint, solvents, cleaners, etc. are thrown out with the trash in residences or go unseen in commercial/construction debris. that means a lot of toxic nast filters through to the bottom and gets caught by the lining, then turns into 'leachate' with the other run-off. sometimes the leachate gets sprayed on the top of the material to cut down on dust.
6. landfills produce 34% of the methane emissions. .... i think i mentioned that in an earlier posting. 34%!
7. on last year's composting class tour to DADS the guide said there was a good 120 years left at this landfill before it is landfull. this year he said there are 100 years.
8. a bale of aluminum cans is worth about $900.
9. most recyclable paper in the U.S. gets sold to china.
10. recycling facilities are really loud and sort of like a willy wonka factory. here are some oompa-loompas sorting paper:
11. most forms of public transportation put me to sleep. this realization had nothing whatever to do with class- just something i've noticed every time i get on a bus or plane.
12. the dump really doesn't stink that much.
13. the wastewater reclamation district DOES. oh man it was foul. i only took one picture there, and here it is:
14. every day, gallons upon gallons of expired beverages arrive at recycling facilities. this beer is only about a quarter of what we saw:
two guys open up each box, take the canned/bottled drinks out of the their plastic holders or six packs and toss them into a big crushing machine to get the liquid out. while we were there they were working on thousands of cases of mike's hard lemonade, so it smelled sort of sweet and lemony. i'm glad we weren't there on a 100 degree day while they were doing beer.
they're prohibited from taking any home.
it is astonishing how much waste we produce. in the past 150 years or so, our waste has grown exponentially, and continues to do so as more people in the world begin to afford stupid plastic products that they can replace again and again. most of it gets landfilled, but some, thankfully, gets put to good use. recycling is doing pretty well in the states, but could and should do a LOT better. in denver, our biosolids (a nice word for SHIT) is treated naturally- that is, with microbes in aerobic and anaerobic conditions, and sold as a class B fertilizer to farms. no worries, kt's perfectly safe stuff. some of it gets composted, too, and, as guests of the wastewater reclamation district, we were given a goodie bag that included a sample of 'metrogro' compost and a packet of marigolds.
reduce, reuse, recycle. it ain't just a slogan, it's the way you should be.
4 comments:
I'm amazed. I had NO idea about some of this stuff....other stuff I knew. Still, seeing photos and hearing a first-hand account is incredible.
There is a great song from the "Curious George" soundtrack called "The Three R's" -- referring to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. They play it on XMKids all the time. Look it up on itunes.
Oh, the humanity! Say it ain't so. Not...expired beer! Anything but that!
I hope you have seen the Dirty Jobs episode when Mike helps change a lift pump at the San Fransisco waste treatment plant. Truly horrifying.
Ash, why not invite Kate B to the blog? She wrote the following in an e-mail to me:
"I got an email from Ashley on
the subject of worm composting, which is currently one
of my favorite subjects. No one ever really wants to
talk about it as much as I do, though, so I was
excited about the prospect of having a fellow admirer
of red wrigglers..."
Sounds like a perfect guest on Shelydom. PS glad you're back.
Oooo! I almost forgot! I have something to say about compost too! The so-called Chocolate Factory here that's suposedly going to open "anytime now" on Commercial Street is producing Cocoa Compost! Looks like fine mulch, smells like CHOCOLATE! A dream come true! So far, however, I've only seen one small ziplock bag full of it. Not exactly a large-scale operation. When, oh when will the Chocolate Factpory open and the Oompa Loompas come to work?
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