Epiphany at the dumps

If you have never been to your area’s wasteland, you are missing a lot. Tremendous life lessons are yours for the picking; that is, if you are open to being weaned and to let go of the unsustainable consumerism lifestyle that our society has been thrust into. Yes, epiphany, defined as “an experience of sudden and striking realization” (Wikipedia), can occur in the filthiest places on earth and humanity’s shameful invention—our garbage dumps.

The ugly toxic landscape never fails to unnerve even the most desensitized first-time visitors. The sight of heaps of mixed and uncovered wastes instantly jars your reality, including your self-image. “I am part of this problem,” you would have to tell yourself, if you are among the still-uncaring “buy-toss-throw”  habitués of this pleasure-oriented planet.

The goods strewn everywhere are familiar—the perilous plastic bags, empty deodorant bottles, mercury-laden batteries, bottles galore and ever y item lurking in your household and office. Hidden but littering somewhere are the mounting volume of electronic wastes that are hazardous to you and me and everyone and which, like the municipal wastes, are largely unregulated.

Looking at the inhabitants of the host community, your heart sinks further into despair.  You cannot imagine that your children or any of the people close to you live in such a desolate place and be used to the pollution, dust  and flies and the incessant noise emanating from the dump trucks passing by, not to mention the continuing stress and anxiety that living in such a forsaken place brings.

Some of the residents did not either. They did not expect that their community would be the subject of a waste disposal facility contract between the government and the landowner. Were they even consulted? Or if they were, did they have an option, as they had nowhere to go?

Others chose to live near the dumps as it is the only way to eke out a living, as their parents and grandparents did decades back.  Waste picking is, for them, the only way to survive in the highly competitive world of ours, some even competing with relatives of public officials who are engaged in the same business.

The residents are clearly victims of environmental injustice. While everyone suffers from various forms of environmental degradation, the children, women and men living in or near dumpsites have to bear more than most of us the burden and the barbarous effects of our reckless and irresponsible habits of dumping resources anywhere, except in our homes and yards.

Dumpsites emit the poisonous climate change causing greenhouse gas called methane and produce leachate that contaminates ground water. Leachates vary in composition, depending on the kind of materials in the dumps and even the temperature.

The website of Sixwise (www.sixwise.com) on the effects of living near dumpsites is highly informative:

“Studies have shown possible increased risks of certain types of cancer, including bladder, brain and leukemia, among people who live near landfills.

“Further, a study by researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine also found that babies born to mothers who live near landfills have a greater risk of birth defects.

“’There was a significantly overall increased risk of neural-tube defects, malformations of the cardiac septa (hole-in-the-heart), and malformations of the great arteries and veins in residents near the landfill sites in our study,’ the researchers said.

“And, a recent study found that living near a landfill could expose residents to chemicals that can reduce immune system function and lead to an increased risk of infections.

As opposed to children living in clean areas, the study found that ‘children living near to waste sites, whether landfills or contaminated bodies of water, are hospitalized more frequently with acute respiratory infections, said Dr. David O. Carpenter, director of the Institute for Health and the Environment, at the State University of New York at Albany. Children living near waste sites also had increased rates of hospitalization for asthma.

Carpenter said the extent to which toxic landfill contaminants suppress the immune system has been underestimated.’” https://www.sixwise.com/newsletters/06/09/29

Living in or near dumpsites strips one of dignity and honor. It is a human rights violation. The National Solid Waste Management Commission, which is not as visible as it should be, promulgated the Framework for the Informal Sector in Solid Waste Management in 2009 to protect the informal sector. Like the laws and the Plans of Action, it remains unimplemented.

Amid piles of discards, it was uplifting to see biodiversity in the dumpsite we visited recently. Although we cannot be sure what toxic chemicals are in their body, goats and carabaos looked “filled.” Butterflies and birds were happily flitting from a favorite spot to another. We saw trees that I have not seen for decades such as “doldol” and mango seedlings jutted out amid the wastes. Nature does find ways to adapt to the most adverse of circumstances. But, we can only hope it is true for humans.

Meanwhile, let us design and implement the solid waste management plan that  each local government unit must have. In the process, we look at solutions which the EcoWaste Coalition proposes such as “investments on effective programs that will prevent and reduce waste volume and toxicity, including clean production, product redesign, toxics use reduction, reduced packaging, eco-friendly consumption, segregation at source, reuse, recycling and composting.”

The Not-In-My-Backyard (NIMBY ) syndrome defiles the bayanihan spirit that we thought we were innately  imbued with as a nation. It is a disgrace and must already stop.