Pausing at the Landfill

Lebanon Landfill, March 2020 Photo by ERSwett

When
I visited the
Lebanon Solid Waste
and Recycling Facility (also
known as The Landfill) last week,
this is what I saw: Fresh snow and a
sparkling blue sky. The air
smelled clean and the
earth seemed to 
breath.

Lebanon Landfill Composting, March 2020 Photo By ERSwett

The steam
had just settled
on the freshly turned
compost piles and tracks from
the machines that accomplished
that task seemed like
snakes ​in the
​snow.

Outside Looking In, March 2020 Photo by ERSwett

For almost 
a year, I've been
documenting the Landfill
and have not been surprised by
the tons of waste dumped onto the
ground, creating a mountain
where there had once
been a valley.

Dump Truck Unloading Garbage, March 2020 Photo by ERSwett

I have
been in awe,
however, at the raw
beauty of this rugged piece
of earth in our midst and the artful
way the crew at the landfill
sculpts our garbage
every day.

Sculpting The Earth, February 2020 Photo by ERSwett

I love
how landfills
contain the waste
from our lives, no matter
who we are or where we come
from. Beneath the skillful manipulation
of soil and wood chips mixed with our garbage,
lies all of us, mixed and mingled together.
The universality of this reality
humbles and invites
pause.

Organic Soup Container, March 2020 Photo by ERSwett

This
discarded
organic tomato 
soup carton could be
mine. And how strange to
see one of the organic produce
bags from the Co-op stuck in the mud.
As a photographer, I love the yellow against the
dark earth and the way the sun makes the plastic shine.
As a naturalist, I am saddened. Will one of
​the crows or other birds that
visits this open land
be poisoned by
​the plastic?

Organic Produce Bag, March 2020 Photo by ERSwett

A few
minutes later,
when the sun went
behind a cloud, it was not
the play of light, but the play of 
textures and tones that caught my eye,
and the way the color of the ground shifted
from raw black soil to brown shredded bark to a
layer of plastic and then on to the snow-covered hillside.
And here was this massive vehicle whose sole
job is to smash it all up, but which,
in the process, creates these
elegant circles in
the soil.

Tracks by Lady Bug -- The Landfill Trash Compactor, March 2020 Photo by ERSwett

To manage
our waste, the landfill
crew harnesses a complex mix
of engineering, biology, chemistry and art.
​It's all about containment - How to safely entomb
our garbage so that it stays where we put it,
does not leach toxic runoff or become
a landslide, or explode from
​noxious gases.

Crow at The Landfill, March 2020 Photo by ERSwett

When at
The Landfill this
past week I thought about
our current struggles with the Covid-19
pandemic. Just as our waste is mixed and mingled
so too are we all in this complex crisis together. Our challenge
though, is that as a society, we don't have the tools
we need or the necessary systems in
place to manage a crisis of
this magnitude.

Abstraction with Dried Mud, 2019 Photo by ERSwett

For me,
it's not hard to
manage what I know or 
to plan for things I understand. Like
in this discarded tax preparation worksheet
from 1992, I can do whatever calculations I must.
But when confronted with variables I do
not understand that are beyond
my control, I become
a bit befuddled.

20th Century Accounting, March 2020 Photo by ERSwett

While
at The Landfill
last week, though, the
manager indicated that they
were receiving 35% less waste than
just two weeks before. He suggested that it's
like everyone & everything is taking a deep breath and
a giant pause. Maybe, I thought, that is what the earth and each
one of us needs right now...as long as we care for
​each other along the way...because
we are most definitely in
this together...

We're In This Together, Winter 2020 Photo By ERSwett

...pausing
at the landfill
or at home, or wherever
we may be right
​now.