A smattering of the things I learned on the CLUI's Trip to the Dump:
- Dump isn't the right term, since it implies a lack of planning and engineering; landfill is. Also, it isn't trash or garbage, it's a "resource."
- Puente Hills Landfill is the largest working landfill in the country (Fresh Kills is larger, but closed), and it's literally right off the freeway near Whittier.
- No one wants a dump in their backyard, so when Puente Hills fills up in 2013 LA's trash will be shipped by train 200 miles to the southeastern-most corner of the state. That new landfill should last another 100 years.
- If you leave the cap on your glass bottle when you toss it in the recycling bin that's fine, but if you put a sheet of newspaper in your green bin with your yard trimmings it ruins everything.
- Salvaging is a problem that warrants multiple "No Salvaging" signs.
- Bulldozers are the Michelangelos of garbage.
- The landfill workers have impressively extensive knowledge of seagull psychology.
- Other landfill wildlife includes deer, coyotes, and bunnies, who live on the re-vegetated portions.
- The materials recovered at the Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) are sold to China to be turned into items that might end up right back at the landfill.
- I might not like my job very much, but at least I'm not literally sorting through garbage.
- The Sanitation District cafeteria makes a mean tuna melt.
- The Rose Hills Cemetery is just on the other side of the hill from Puente Hills and is also very much in the business of moving earth.
- The processing plant scene from Soylent Green sure takes on new resonance after a day of seeing exactly what happens after our trash is magically whisked away from our curbs.
3 - 6pm PST, Sunday, August 3
KALX Berkeley 90.7fm
And if you're curious about the songs I'm currently obsessed with, many of which I've played on my show recently, Timothy Buckwalter posted my small list yesterday as part of the excellent "Art & Music" series he ran on his blog this week. Check 'em out!
