Co-mingling at the Dump...not what it USED to be.
Ahhhh! Remember the Good Old Days…
When the dollar was worth more than the Swiss Franc? When Apples and Blackberries were still fruits? When we threw our trash in the dump?
The Dump has been gone now for more than a decade. Today we have a trash compacter, and a 1962 (not kidding) semi trailer that we fill with cardboard and haul down to Colorado Springs three or four times a year for recycling. We spend $600 hauling it down and receive about $400 for the cardboard—but it is the thought that counts, right? We also have three huge recycling bins—one for paper, one for aluminum and one for “co-mingle” which sounds vaguely suggestive but actually means that glass and various metals can get tossed together in there.
But please DO NOT put garbage bags in the co-mingle bin!
Things are not always perfect with the trash compacter either. On at least three separate occasions, the compacter was so heavy when the driver came from Waste Management (don’t you love that name?) to haul it away, that his front wheels would not stay on the ground and he had to dump all the trash out on the ground. Apparently, they can only haul 13 tons or something like that.
But I digress. Back to the dump—which was the ultimate co-mingle. Everything went in the dump. You remember…it was about 50 feet long, 20 feet wide, and 15 feet deep…large enough to hold several trucks. And over the years, it did hold several trucks–when the garbage man miscalculated while backing up or forgot to set the emergency brake (or did set the emergency brake but it didn’t work). Sandy was not happy when this occurred.
The dump was also a fabulous wildlife refuge. How many of you remember hopping in a van in the evening to tour the dump and watch the bears that were always attracted by the pungent aromas coming from the area? There were a few garbage men, however, who had rather frightening encounters with bears at the dump, because, as you will recall, our garbage trucks rarely had windows. One poor guy was seriously upset and ran back to Big Spring when a bear came right through the no-glass back window into the cab. Now the bears walk mournfully around the trash compacter and head off to the back porches at the Big Spring and High Trails Lodges where the aroma is still pungent. It is a sad loss…
Another advantage of the dump was that, if something was accidentally thrown away, you had a chance to retrieve it. The classic example is the retainer that someone wrapped in a napkin during the meal and forgot until a couple of hours later when the trash had already been hauled away. I have personally retrieved at least five retainers from the dump by focusing in on what we had for lunch that day (“Ah! I see taco remnants) and crawling into the dump to search the trash. (always checking of course to make sure no bears were around). It was messy but effective and the retainers could be washed and returned to their grateful owners. Today, however, if a retainer gets to the compacter…you can imagine.
We are much more environmentally conscientious these days, and much more in compliance with a whole bunch of rules made by a whole bunch of bureaucracies, but there are times when I long for the old Dump.
-Jane Sanborn-
