the dump

a few weeks ago, after finishing trimming our bushes for the fall, we loaded up all of our yard refuse and a few old sections of fencing that were laying around the yard from when we had the wall redone, i think, into scott's truck and headed to the dump.  (which, by the way, is not cheap - $45 for us to unload our bed full of bush trimmings.)

anyway, it was my first time being even remotely near a dump, and i have to say, it's probably one of the more humbling experiences i've had in my life.  from the outside, driving up, it almost looks like a ranch - rolling grassy hills surrounded by fencing.  once you get inside, driving back on the dirt roads toward the dumping point, it still almost looks like a ranch, but with much taller grassy hills.  i commented on how pretty it was, then realized, oh wait, that hill is probably made of trash - just older trash that's been covered and seeded.  we drove up to the dumping area and parked alongside 4-5 other pickups (with a line of trucks waiting for us to vacate our spots).  you get out, and you're standing on dirt, but if you look, you can see plastic grocery sacks mixed in with the dirt, and pieces of trash sticking out the top.  there are giant machines with enormous spiked tools on the front churning up dirt to break down and cover the trash as people dump it.  then you drive away and realize that the dumping area is itself on top of a hill, and that hill is probably made up entirely of trash mixed with churned up dirt.

garbage seems very sanitary when you throw it away at home.  put it in a plastic bag in the cupboard, when it gets too full, move it to the canister behind the garage, take the outside cans to the curb once a week and it disappears while you're gone at work.  put most of your recyclables in the green tubs in the garage, except when it's a margarine container and you don't feel like cleaning out the bits of margarine left on the sides of the plastic tub so you just throw it in the trash, or the junk mail when you're cleaning off the counter and the tiny recycle bin in the cupboard is pushed to the back and you don't want to kneel down and retrieve it - then you just put those in the trash.

somehow actually seeing the landfill and realizing that your curbside bags of trash combine with the other 2.3 million people in the metro area's trash puts it into perspective, though.  the stuff i throw out is actual trash, does go to a real landfill, and will sit there for a long long time, making giant hills while it decomposes.  i'm trying to get better about actually putting recyclables in the recycling bin, but it's a little frustrating that there's really only so much that you can do - part of being a consumer is that you consume things, and unfortunately, a lot of things right now have giant plastic cases and styrofoam included.