We Finally Took The Garbage Out

Going to DADS I had very mixed ideas of what I would expect when we got there, I had my own stereotypes of landfills based on my personal experience such as my mission trip to alaska where I spent a week working in the fairbanks landfill and also looking at my older sisters photography from her travels to the slums of Manila in the Philippines. The fairbanks landfill, which was barely operated, and was literally a heaping pile of trash, was smelly and dirty. Yet it had a strange sort beauty about it. The Fairbanks landfill had views of incredible vistas of the breathtaking Alaskan landscape. I expected something much similar at DADS, seeing as Denver is a much larger city than fairbanks, so more heaping piles of trash and a reeking smell, with maybe a decent view of the mountains. Despite my personal experiences in other american landfills, I also have the images of the slums of Manila the capital city of the Philippines making their their homes in the middle of heaping piles of stinking trash and making their livings salvaging trash out of the dump. one of the stereotypes I have of dumps is that they are places of desperation, so I was not expecting to feel hope when we visited, but I did. And even though I have my own experiences, for some reason i thought DADS would be more like the Manila slums, dirty and smelly and extremely sad. This assumption makes no sense to me now, but it is what i was expecting as we rode towards DADS. DADS was sterile and went against my stereotype of landfills as desperate dirty places, and it shocked me. The picture relates to how I felt initially, as we drove through the gate there were hills covered with prairie grass and scattered gas pumps, and in my head I knew there was trash beneath it all but it just looked so natural and clean. This picture has no visible trash in it because when I was first looking at it I could not see any. It was clean and beautiful in a very simple way, this strange beauty shattered my illusion that DADS would be a slum. My next reaction was when we got to the active part of the landfill. My first though as we stood on top of the trash hill was we have so much trash! I knew there would be a lot of trash because we all create so much on an individual basis everyday, but actually seeing it, standing on top of it all, on the acres of trash we have created, it was frightening. We have so much trash. And when i noticed not all of it was trash either, i saw a ton of trash on the ground and half buried that could have been recycled, i was so frustrated. My second thought as we were standing on top of the active dump site looking at the rolling hills of trash stretched out in front of us, was we are literally relandscaping the world and creating mountains out of trash. My picture relates because it shows the city of Denver and the mountains, the city of Denver is creating its own mountains with the trash we are creating, its like a little flow chart, the trash coming from denver into the landfill which is growing up into mountains. So the picture is trash mountains beneath the real mountains, its shocking and angering to me. We are creating trash these trash mountains which made me feel mournful, yet, DADS is trying to be as sustainable as they can, and that fact i what made me feel hopeful. They are being sustainable by capturing methane gas produced by the trash in the gas wells and powering the landfill with the trash and selling the trash energy to the power company. They are being resourceful with their resources by using the trash to line new dump pits. Their sustainability gives me hope because they are moving forward and trying to do even more to be more sustainable, such as trying to start a composting section. My picture relates to how i felt when we were leaving because the picture has no trash in it and gives me hope that one day we can create a sustainable society with very limited to zero waste. In In The Web of Life Fritjof Capra explains that “Deep ecology recognizes the intrinsic value of all living beings and views humans as just one particular strand in the web of life (Capra, 7), this quote from Capra exemplifies his idea of systems theory. Systems theory basically means to think as an ecosystem, meaning everything is interconnected as a network. I think this picture represents Capra’s idea of system theory because it shows how these particular systems are connected. Denver is in the background creating the trash that goes to DADS and the picture is showing them together building on each other, both affecting the other, because one without the other could not survive. But on the flipside of that i also think this picture represents our current paradigm of thinking because though these two places are in a network, they are also two very different and disconnected places. Denver is in the background of the shot going along its own way, producing all this trash, yet the majority of the population has no idea where their trash goes once it leaves the bins. Yet here in the foreground is DADS taking all that trash into its own system. So just how i had an array of different feeling about my experience at DADS, this picture also represents two very different feelings or ideas, system theory and our current worldview. But again, this experience gives me hope that in the future these two system will be completely unified.Going to DADS I had very mixed ideas of what I would expect when we got there, I had my own stereotypes of landfills based on my personal experience such as my mission trip to alaska where I spent a week working in the fairbanks landfill and also looking at my older sisters photography from her travels to the slums of Manila in the Philippines. The fairbanks landfill, which was barely operated, and was literally a heaping pile of trash, was smelly and dirty. Yet it had a strange sort beauty about it. The Fairbanks landfill had views of incredible vistas of the breathtaking Alaskan landscape. I expected something much similar at DADS, seeing as Denver is a much larger city than fairbanks, so more heaping piles of trash and a reeking smell, with maybe a decent view of the mountains. Despite my personal experiences in other american landfills, I also have the images of the slums of Manila the capital city of the Philippines making their their homes in the middle of heaping piles of stinking trash and making their livings salvaging trash out of the dump. one of the stereotypes I have of dumps is that they are places of desperation, so I was not expecting to feel hope when we visited, but I did. And even though I have my own experiences, for some reason i thought DADS would be more like the Manila slums, dirty and smelly and extremely sad. This assumption makes no sense to me now, but it is what i was expecting as we rode towards DADS. DADS was sterile and went against my stereotype of landfills as desperate dirty places, and it shocked me. The picture relates to how I felt initially, as we drove through the gate there were hills covered with prairie grass and scattered gas pumps, and in my head I knew there was trash beneath it all but it just looked so natural and clean. This picture has no visible trash in it because when I was first looking at it I could not see any. It was clean and beautiful in a very simple way, this strange beauty shattered my illusion that DADS would be a slum. My next reaction was when we got to the active part of the landfill. My first though as we stood on top of the trash hill was we have so much trash! I knew there would be a lot of trash because we all create so much on an individual basis everyday, but actually seeing it, standing on top of it all, on the acres of trash we have created, it was frightening. We have so much trash. And when i noticed not all of it was trash either, i saw a ton of trash on the ground and half buried that could have been recycled, i was so frustrated. My second thought as we were standing on top of the active dump site looking at the rolling hills of trash stretched out in front of us, was we are literally relandscaping the world and creating mountains out of trash. My picture relates because it shows the city of Denver and the mountains, the city of Denver is creating its own mountains with the trash we are creating, its like a little flow chart, the trash coming from denver into the landfill which is growing up into mountains. So the picture is trash mountains beneath the real mountains, its shocking and angering to me. We are creating trash these trash mountains which made me feel mournful, yet, DADS is trying to be as sustainable as they can, and that fact i what made me feel hopeful. They are being sustainable by capturing methane gas produced by the trash in the gas wells and powering the landfill with the trash and selling the trash energy to the power company. They are being resourceful with their resources by using the trash to line new dump pits. Their sustainability gives me hope because they are moving forward and trying to do even more to be more sustainable, such as trying to start a composting section. My picture relates to how i felt when we were leaving because the picture has no trash in it and gives me hope that one day we can create a sustainable society with very limited to zero waste. In In The Web of Life Fritjof Capra explains that “Deep ecology recognizes the intrinsic value of all living beings and views humans as just one particular strand in the web of life (Capra, 7), this quote from Capra exemplifies his idea of systems theory. Systems theory basically means to think as an ecosystem, meaning everything is interconnected as a network. I think this picture represents Capra’s idea of system theory because it shows how these particular systems are connected. Denver is in the background creating the trash that goes to DADS and the picture is showing them together building on each other, both affecting the other, because one without the other could not survive. But on the flipside of that i also think this picture represents our current paradigm of thinking because though these two places are in a network, they are also two very different and disconnected places. Denver is in the background of the shot going along its own way, producing all this trash, yet the majority of the population has no idea where their trash goes once it leaves the bins. Yet here in the foreground is DADS taking all that trash into its own system. So just how i had an array of different feeling about my experience at DADS, this picture also represents two very different feelings or ideas, system theory and our current worldview. But again, this experience gives me hope that in the future these two system will be completely unified. Going to DADS I had very mixed ideas of what I would expect when we got there, I had my own stereotypes of landfills based on my personal experience such as my mission trip to alaska where I spent a week working in the fairbanks landfill and also looking at my older sisters photography from her travels to the slums of Manila in the Philippines. The fairbanks landfill, which was barely operated, and was literally a heaping pile of trash, was smelly and dirty. Yet it had a strange sort beauty about it. The Fairbanks landfill had views of incredible vistas of the breathtaking Alaskan landscape. I expected something much similar at DADS, seeing as Denver is a much larger city than fairbanks, so more heaping piles of trash and a reeking smell, with maybe a decent view of the mountains. Despite my personal experiences in other american landfills, I also have the images of the slums of Manila the capital city of the Philippines making their their homes in the middle of heaping piles of stinking trash and making their livings salvaging trash out of the dump. one of the stereotypes I have of dumps is that they are places of desperation, so I was not expecting to feel hope when we visited, but I did. And even though I have my own experiences, for some reason i thought DADS would be more like the Manila slums, dirty and smelly and extremely sad. This assumption makes no sense to me now, but it is what i was expecting as we rode towards DADS. DADS was sterile and went against my stereotype of landfills as desperate dirty places, and it shocked me. The picture relates to how I felt initially, as we drove through the gate there were hills covered with prairie grass and scattered gas pumps, and in my head I knew there was trash beneath it all but it just looked so natural and clean. This picture has no visible trash in it because when I was first looking at it I could not see any. It was clean and beautiful in a very simple way, this strange beauty shattered my illusion that DADS would be a slum. My next reaction was when we got to the active part of the landfill. My first though as we stood on top of the trash hill was we have so much trash! I knew there would be a lot of trash because we all create so much on an individual basis everyday, but actually seeing it, standing on top of it all, on the acres of trash we have created, it was frightening. We have so much trash. And when i noticed not all of it was trash either, i saw a ton of trash on the ground and half buried that could have been recycled, i was so frustrated. My second thought as we were standing on top of the active dump site looking at the rolling hills of trash stretched out in front of us, was we are literally relandscaping the world and creating mountains out of trash. My picture relates because it shows the city of Denver and the mountains, the city of Denver is creating its own mountains with the trash we are creating, its like a little flow chart, the trash coming from denver into the landfill which is growing up into mountains. So the picture is trash mountains beneath the real mountains, its shocking and angering to me. We are creating trash these trash mountains which made me feel mournful, yet, DADS is trying to be as sustainable as they can, and that fact i what made me feel hopeful. They are being sustainable by capturing methane gas produced by the trash in the gas wells and powering the landfill with the trash and selling the trash energy to the power company. They are being resourceful with their resources by using the trash to line new dump pits. Their sustainability gives me hope because they are moving forward and trying to do even more to be more sustainable, such as trying to start a composting section. My picture relates to how i felt when we were leaving because the picture has no trash in it and gives me hope that one day we can create a sustainable society with very limited to zero waste. In In The Web of Life Fritjof Capra explains that “Deep ecology recognizes the intrinsic value of all living beings and views humans as just one particular strand in the web of life (Capra, 7), this quote from Capra exemplifies his idea of systems theory. Systems theory basically means to think as an ecosystem, meaning everything is interconnected as a network. I think this picture represents Capra’s idea of system theory because it shows how these particular systems are connected. Denver is in the background creating the trash that goes to DADS and the picture is showing them together building on each other, both affecting the other, because one without the other could not survive. But on the flipside of that i also think this picture represents our current paradigm of thinking because though these two places are in a network, they are also two very different and disconnected places. Denver is in the background of the shot going along its own way, producing all this trash, yet the majority of the population has no idea where their trash goes once it leaves the bins. Yet here in the foreground is DADS taking all that trash into its own system. So just how i had an array of different feeling about my experience at DADS, this picture also represents two very different feelings or ideas, system theory and our current worldview. But again, this experience gives me hope that in the future these two system will be completely unified.