GARBAGE LAND:
On the Secret Trail of Trash
Elizabeth Royte
Holy Hell! It's Cale's wife Brooke!
As a first time guest reviewer, I figured that would write a review for the section read the least. Do any of you read anyway?
Thanks to Time Warner, I have had the disgusting and enlightening opportunity to preview Elizabeth Royte's new book Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash. I can, without a doubt now, state that the US is populated with the most wasteful fuckers on the face of the planet. As we follow the author, we travel routes like garbage bag to landfill, toliet to compost plant and scrap metal to reusable iron.
It is clear that the average American is concerned with getting their trash off the curb, and out of olfactory range before it begins to decay. But did we know about the lives of the "san man" or sanitary worker and just how competitive the job market for these jobs are? Over 30,000 applied for the job last year in New York City alone, for a job with a starting wage of just $30,000. $30,000 to pick up dog shit, dirty diapers and musty old underwear (speaking from experience living with Matt) is the solidification needed once again to prove that blue collar workers don't mean dick in the real corporate force of America, and it speaks volumes that so many people are literally dying to get a job wallowing in refuse and fending off Norwegian rat bites.
Following the trash to various landfills, we find out the secretive nature of keeping the public out at any cost. Why in the hell are there guards patrolling the dumpsites, unless illegal activity is taking place? A particularly lethal substance called "leachate" is now seeping through the ground and flowing into rivers, oceans and backyard grass. Consisting of chemicals, human waste, animal feces, mercury, battery acid, rotting food and pesticides, this substance upon decomposition into liquid state is supposed to be gathered up and disposed of properly. It being far too expensive to do so, the dumpsites just "control it as much as possible". That is like someone saying, "I know I just took a shit in your water glass, but I tried to control it as much as possible". Landfills alone are becoming a big business and a draw for big cities to bribe small, rural (Read Here: lots of blacks, and "Them brown people") and pay them large sums to take and bury their trash. For Bumfuck, USA, $4 million dollars that pays for new schools, libraries and town halls is a small price to pay for Sheniqua having 3 forms of active cancer, DeShon not being able to breathe without a machine, and Boomquisha having her third illegitimate child born with 3 hands.
By far the most disturbing chapter was that dealing with "E-Waste", which consists of the fastest growing dumped waste in the U.S. We are so preoccupied with having the newest, fastest, thinnest cell phones and computers, we are throwing out 300 million of them a year. What is the problem here? How many can I list before you slice your wrists is the best answer I can give. One computer monitor contains nearly 4 pounds of lead (See Boomquisha reference above, to help you with your thinking) and one, just ONE computer takes over 1.8 tons of raw materials to produce. So Ann Coulter's insidious comment "Take the Earth, rape it, it's yours" seems to be exactly what we are doing. And since an integral compound in the making of cell phones can only be found in Forested Africa, feel free to talk to your inane friends about how "bitchin" the new Matrix movie was while gorilla habitats are being destroyed by millions of acres each year.
And just think, Ms. Royte reminds us, when you are attempting to keep up with the Joneses; battling for the greenest lawn, the secret could live in recycled human shit. Human waste composting, separating liquid from solid, into small fertilizer pellets -- although possibly being the worst job in the entire world -- the pellets are in actuality excellent grass feed. And, although we know that babies are the ruination of the Earth, (okay maybe just Matt and I's belief), their diapers account for only 1% of total landfill content. However, going right along with my beliefs, Christmas is the single biggest fucking waste of money, trash etc. known to human kind. The sanitation companies are forced to hire additional sanitation workers in December just to pick up the trash left behind from the vermin greedily digging away on Christmas morning.
In conclusion, I learned to think twice about sticking my face under the faucet for a quick sip of tap water, or taking a dip in my local stream. Hell, after reading this, I don't even want to leave the house. Luckily, a weekly ritual in our house became just that possibility. After learning McDonald's produces enough waste daily to fill the Empire State Building, it gave me a whole new meaning to the
Shithouse Cinema experience.
