Last Monday I had the opportunity to visit Nanjing's repository for the city's trash, as a part of a class field trip for one of my sociology classes. As our bus pulled into the entrance, I noticed a drastic change in terrain, the suburbs around Nanjing are fairly flat and suddenly there were sloping hills adorning dusty plaster office buildings clustered around a tired looking tollbooth where we stopped and picked up our guide for the day, a Mr. C.
We descended into the valley and passed by a large plastic sign simply marked as "Lot #1". After disembarking, I was shocked to learn that the "hills" of Lot #1 were the remains of Nanjing's first landfill. I had been unknowingly gazing at the final stage of a landfill's metamorphosis from arable farmland to desolate pit of waste to almost normal looking but utterly artificial landscape.
In contrast to Lot 1, the literal mountain of trash towering over the end of the road half an hour away from the entrance of the landfill depicted a colorful and surreal world utterly different from the drab brown of the valley. This mountain possessed an ever-changing terrain shaped by a small bulldozer while its denizens picked through the mountains ever-turning innards for recyclable materials such as plastic bags, glass and various other materials. Gloved hands grasped sharp hoes which nosed through endless mounds of trash. Men and women waded through rivulets of rain water from last night's storm, navigating soft sinking texture of the mountain with large rubber boots and pants covered in a collage of plastic packaging which used to be wrapped around rolls of toilet paper or perhaps a large box of baby diapers. The red cheek of a peasant glowed in the morning sun as one of the mountain's workers turns to stare at us. These trash collectors were the leftovers, the forgotten of China's less prosperous parts who take the jobs that no Nanjing resident would consider. A student in my group whispered, "I guess a job is better than no job, especially during the financial crisis". As I gawked along with my innocent Chinese and American classmates, I wondered at the trash collectors' ability to withstand the mountain's overpowering assault on the senses.
From my perspective, the mountain threatened to topple over the flimsy wire fence standing between it and our little group to whom our guide was lecturing to about the current problems facing the management of the trash dump. The vast pit only half filled with the mountain's bulk apparently only had sufficient space to store Nanjing's trash for the next three years. According to our guide, since it takes three years to build a landfill and local residents are naturally opposed to having a landfill built nearby there homes , this poses serious problems for the city's ability to dispose and deal with its residents' waste. Although the management of the trash dump has been trying to pass a bill which would build a trash processing plant based on burning trash at high temperatures, local residents have vetoed the bill every year. The proposed plant would in theory burn trash at a temperature of over 800 degrees Celsius(this prevents dangerous dioxins which are also carcinogens from being released into the air) and would cut down on the environmental hazards of landfills and circumvent the severe land shortage that plagues not only Nanjing but China in general.
As he spoke, his eyes wandered up to the sky. The mountain in its florid glory could neither shock him nor overwhelm him with the pungent wind gusting through its peaks. The intricate web of human relationships our guide wove with words created a lasting impression on me. While following his lilting Nanjing accent depicting the complicated relationship between state, local government and Nanjing resident, I almost forget about the unreality of the mountain. In the midst of the gnashing of teeth caused by China's local and national level pollution problems, the distant promises of new technology and the ongoing drama between the landfill and city residents, is there also a place for the concerns and well being of the rural Chinese residents that traverse the mountain and bear the burden of driving the growth of modern Chinese society on their backs?
