landfill as graveyard
March 26th, 2007 by smidge
The Cosmology of Waste Part IV: LANDFILL AS GRAVEYARD
An extended metaphor…
The products of our economy, the objects we as Consumers surround ourselves with, are our family. Waste management is a kind of gerontology and mortuary service. End-of-product-life care. We care for your loved ones when no one else wants to anymore. We take them to their final resting place. The landfill is capitalism’s graveyard, and Haulers are the pallbearers. But rarely are we treated – and rarely do we conduct ourselves - with that kind of dignity.
I could go on, but at some point the metaphor breaks down, because, well – it ceases to be a metaphor. We quite obviously produce each other and bury ourselves in the same way. The observation is commonplace that objects are fetishized, given personalities and lives of their own. It’s just that when you’re a Hauler, these things can really start to sink in.
[For more “Cosmology of Waste” entries, see Wastemakers in the Sky, Theme of the Day, and Give and You Shall Recieve.]
While you haulers may often be the pallbearers, even more significant to me is the degree to which you are heart surgeons, saving lives and reviving unwanted “souls,” or, orphanages with a pretty damn high placement rate.
When I am old and dying (as I clearly am) I look forward to going to a nursing home where nurses don’t want the hassle of changing my sheets. I’ll ramble, have saggy, scarred skin, bony fingers, bad breath and no one will want to cuddle me. You guys are better than doctors. You find new homes and new families to love and cherish even the ricketiest of folding chairs, despite, no, BECAUSE of their chipping paint. Lucky objects.
Until then, I’ll just continue to run my foster home, and you can continue to transport your old, broken chairs, machines, and pianos into my care.