Landfill: Up Close and Personal
Watch Video: The trip to a working rubbish dump >
With the shelter up and the immediate problem of where to sleep solved, Rob decided that it was time for them to come face to face with the sheer scale of Britain's waste problem.
The dump on which the group were living was right next door to the active landfill site, and Rob announced they were going on a trip up to the top. Because there would be plenty trucks dumping and they would not know what they were standing on, the group had to all wear hard hats, high visibility jackets and steel toe capped boots.
Rob took them down to the foot of the landfill first. The group were staggered by the size of it – from a distance it just looked like a big brown hill but up close you could see odd bits of rubbish sticking out and the group began to comprehend just how much rubbish there was in the whole hill.
On getting to the top, the first thing that struck the group was the over-powering stench. Their natural reaction was to try and cover their mouths. Most of the group were appalled. Sylvia was wretching, and Aaron and Sasha looked really uncomfortable. In between gagging, Jason exclaimed: 'It's disgusting, it stinks.'
What a noise!
The other thing that struck them was the noise - the squealing of hundreds of continuously circling gulls and a steady stream of huge trucks pulled up to dump their loads. Afterwards, two huge tractors with spiked wheels trundled over the fresh rubbish to compact it down, ready for the next load to be left on top. The noise meant the only way to communicate was by shouting.
For psychology student Aaron, the trip was a powerful moment: 'I never thought I would see anything like this in my life, I never wanted to and I guess I always shied away from it.' On the verge of tears he continued: 'I'm glad I've seen it, I mean I wish I hadn't but I needed to see it. I definitely needed to see it. I think everyone does.'
Rob pointed out that the huge mound they were standing on was 59 metres high and contained 700,000 tonnes of waste, less than what Britain as a whole produces in just one working day.
Darren's not impressed
For most of the group the experience was shocking and thought provoking. But one member of the group remained unimpressed. Professional joiner Darren was unmoved by what he saw. 'I don't feel bad about. I personally feel that by the time I'm gone I haven't got to worry about it.'
The conversation turned to whether this was a fair legacy to leave for future generations, and Darren was unapologetic about his views: 'There's bigger issues that's going on with other aspects than just this that I'm more worried about my children growing up in; there's a lot more things than just the rubbish. Do you know what I mean? The government, the laws, education, those things are more important to me than the rubbish.'
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