Not long ago the water department found an 800-foot fatberg blocking an East London sewer. Fatbergs form when household items (flushed down toilets) congeal with grease and fat (washed down sinks). The Museum of London placed a slice of the fatberg on display. Alternative energy companies are talking about the possibilities for biofuel.
On average we each create 64 tons of landfill waste per lifetime. That’s a lot of footprint. It’s not surprising we resort to euphemisms. One local dump I know describes itself as a “community amenity facility.” Waste isn’t just a practical issue; it represents everything in our lives we haven’t got a place for, don’t know what to do with.
Most people regard parts of their personal histories as waste—that year at college taking the wrong course, that relationship with someone who turned out to be a complete liar, that apprenticeship under a bullying swindler. A lot of people have parts of their own personality they’ve never understood what to do with—useless skills, uncontrollable desires, destructive habits. Such waste clogs up our memories and our self-respect more thoroughly than a fatberg blocks a sewer.
