surprised

I guess what caught my attention most about ch. 4 was when Royte visited Fresh Kills, or what once was Fresh Kills. She encountered a beautiful landscape and detected no or very little evidence of the garbage yet underground it ‘roiled’, as Royte put it, and was still seeping leachate. Then she was told how much leachate was collected. 200 gallons a minute! Wow. Even with all this leachate she said it didn’t smell. That was surprising.
I was also surprised to learn how much of the trash at landfill is paper. We have a wood burning stove that we heat our house with so started throwing my paper stuff into a separate waste basket and burning it in the stove. I have been taking things to the recycle bins in town for years. But I guess I wasn’t too serious about it. I get a lot less waste now that I’m burning my paper and separating more of my recyclables. Although I don’t know how much of it actually gets recycled once I take it to the recycling bins.