THE HIDDEN LIFE OF GARBAGE
Heather Rogers
Summary
“The Hidden Life of Garbage” is descriptive essay. It was written by Heather Rogers. This essay describes about 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.
