WM Landfill

Waste Management Land Fill

          

           Entering the Denver Arapahoe Disposal Site I was originally shocked by the magnitude of the operations controlled by Waste Management. I felt that there is still so much that can be done to make our country’s trash disposal system more ecologically friendly.  My entire life I had this preconceived notion that anything I threw “away” was going to be looked through and any valuables or objects with the potential of being reused would be taken out.  Unfortunately I quickly realized this thought of mine was false as we watched truck after truck dumping out things such as electronics, cardboard, and bottles that could easily have been reused if they were disposed of properly.  As I looked around the sandy hill of trash I felt sick, not from the smell, but from the quick glance I had into our country’s future.  I was amazed that, even with the one stream system established by Colorado, seventy five percent of the 8,000 tons of trash put into the landfill each day could have been used again.  I left the disposal site with a bad feeling about the countries future.  I now realize how relevant David Orr’s ideas of education are in his book “Earth in Mind.”  At this time some of the smartest people in the country with MBA’s and P.H.D.’s are the top contributors to the wasteful paradigm of our country and put so much emphases on consumption. (Orr, 1994, p. 12) The people who control most business in this country benefit from our countries mass consumption and care more about their personal wealth rather than the future.  I also agree with Orr that we must incorporate ecology into our student’s basic curriculum because understanding our world and how we affect it will be a valuable knowledge in the future. (Orr, 1994, p. 12)  As we left the landfill my spirits were not picked up until I learned about DADS’ renewable energy project that revolved around the retrieval of methane gas from the base of the disposal sites.  Scientists and engineers have learned how to turn methane gas, which was once a nuisance, into a source of energy.  Now DADS can generate enough energy to power one million homes a year, that is the equivalent of 13 million barrels of oil.(cnbc) Projects like DADS renewable energy project give me hope that there are still enough people that understand the necessity of a more eco-centric life style. It is also necessary that some graduates of a higher education are more focused on the future of the world rather than a success measured by wealth.