Our day at the Dump

Today our Mastick Bay Area Issues group toured the San Francisco Dump aka Recology, SF.  What a fascinating place!  We were greeted by Micah, our guide, who showed us a brief film of all the processes involved in recycling and highlighted the tour ahead.  He also answered questions including my query, "Is that plasticky styrofoam recyclable?  I wondered because of the triangle on the packaging.   The answer is No.  Anything like styrofoam goes into the grey barrel.

First stop was the studio of Artist in Residence,  Niki Ulehla, who has devised marionettes using salvaged items from the dump.  These photos show only a tiny portion of the leather, glass embellished, feathered, and carved work she creates.

Outside a tiny village of scrap homes suitable for habitation fill the yard.  The round windows on the second one are clock face glass.
From there we walked toward the landfill waste building past the falcons posted on a hill to ward off the thousands of seagulls flying into and around the building.  Five Harris Hawks from the southwest are brought in each day by their falconer who keeps watch and walks around with them when the gulls start to gather.

(Click on photo for a better view)
Inside the building bulldozers take the contents of all grey barrels and drive it to each end of the massive building behind falcon hill where it falls into large trucks below which carry it to a landfill near Livermore.  Ideally there should be very little of this garbage, mostly plastic bags and cellophane and  styrofoam, but the odor proved that 1/3 of this stuff included wet compostable foodstuff which could go into the green bins. 

Past this building and up another rise is we arrived at the Sculpture Garden filled with the creations of the resident artists and artist friends of the environment.   The gravel pathways there was crushed remains of the Embarcadero Freeway which collapsed in the 1989 earthquake.  Much of the landscaping has been taken from green barrel clippings and is drought resistant and native plants.

Back down the hill we entered the Salvage Building, a junkers delight, containing older furniture, clothing, and decorating items left by residents.   This is the domain of the artists in residence who may scour it for creative purposes.   What fun!

We had a great time and I have to thank Micah Gibson, our guide, and all the employees there for a wonderful tour, of a place where Zero Waste is not just a dream but a real possibility.