Monument of Abuse

Monument of Abuse

            Each day these black towers of infectious waste are raised to the sky, in an almost ceremony like fashion, before draining their contents on to this monumental peak of litter and continuously growing the stain that our pollution has left on these plains. What does this grievous ceremony symbolize? Yet another vat of unwanted trash has been hauled from a city not too far away; a city that has all but forgotten this load of waste as it begins producing the next. The Denver Arapahoe Disposal Site (DADS) has long been the main location for marshaling the trash of Denver and its surrounding areas. DADS has grown to a nearly incomprehensible size and yet it grows larger every day.

            While watching these “Dark Towers” (two hydraulic dump truck lifts) rise straight into the sky I was left with an eerie feeling. I recycle, I ride my bike when I can and I have had the same reusable water bottle for four years. Why do I feel guilty? Could it be guilt by association? I alone could not create a landfill this large in a whole lifetime, but no that wasn’t it. I am an American teenager, trust me when I say I’m good at blaming others, and yet I could not help but feel somewhat guilty. The plains that DADS rests upon used to be no different from those that I have worked on each summer, or the ones that I have been fortunate enough to bike through, and no different from the one that my home resides on. These plains would have looked very different had it not been for the over consuming and wasteful human society. They could have been topped with the peaceful fields and meadows that life in Colorado has me so familiar with and yet they are covered in junk that MY community and MY society have created. I am no different from those who don’t recycle, never bike, and don’t own reusable water bottles. I am no different from them because they are my neighbors and my fellow people, and until WE as a collective group stop the abuse of our environment and our planet, then I am just as guilty for the raising of those black towers. Although it is unrealistic to discontinue the use of landfills altogether, with the right motivation and education, we as a race have the ability to slow the frequency of the towers rising and the dumps from filling. If one person takes a step toward sustainable living it is noble, but if a society as a whole takes that same, step then it is monumental.

Standing upon the mountain of trash and imagining how much of it belonged to me led me to another thought: how many others have seen this? Although I can sit here and be moved by the sight of this tragic place to be better, what if others are not? Why isn’t our environment a more unanimously worried about topic? Each night in the news one might hear about military conflicts in the Middle East or about economic issues in Europe. So why is it we never hear about DADS, a very local and relevant issue? It is time that it is brought to the light so that everyone may see it and hopefully worries about it enough to do something different. “I think the environment should be put in the category of our national security. Defense of our resources is just as important as defense abroad. Otherwise what is there to defend?” Robert Redford.