Member-only story
SOCIETY
A Personal History and Future of Society’s Garbage
We need to look our trash in the face and acknowledge its presence and influence in our lives
On the eastern bank of the Tiber, in Rome, there stands a hill. Not remarkable in size — it measures just over half a mile around its base, and 120 feet high — but of quite astounding geological composition.
It is made entirely of garbage. Seven million cubic feet of crushed terracotta amphorae disposed of by the ancient city’s olive oil import industry in the first three centuries of the Common Era.
Welcome to Monte Testaccio! Disposable humanity. Homo scrappiens. A species of trash tossers.
A couple of thousand years further down our human timeline, I recall driving into London late one evening. As I joined the main approach road from the motorway I saw a huge ten-wheeler emblazoned with the logo of the supermarket chain Tesco heading into the city, laden with pork chops, pineapple chunks and polyester socks.
At that precise moment its path crossed a convoy of three or four battered, stinky, Mad Max wagons of destruction heading the opposite way. Garbage trucks on their way to an out-of-town landfill site. An unforgettable epiphany on the road to detritus.