ILoveTrash
14 Years Experience
Harrisburg, PA
Female, 48
No, really, I am a state employee working in our Environmental Protection program. I have worked in the Waste Management program for nearly fifteen years. I have looked at the waste handling practices from about any type of facility you can think of, from food producers to hospitals to plating shops, and where the waste goes, like incinerators and landfills. My days are rarely dull, as I supervise ten inspectors and am usually the regulatory tie-breaker. My ideal day is a day in the field.
I'd have to say the one of the worst things I've seen was the unsucessful attempt at a cow compost pile at a farm. I was there looking at the other end of the pile originally, which was the trash-burning end. I walked around to see the scrap metal section of the pile, and after seeing it I just happened to look up above my head and there was a leg sticking out of the side of the "mulch" part of the pile. Yikes! I can say that I've been around the block enough that I'm ready for a snack after visiting the landfill. Some kind of weird Pavlovian reaction, I guess. Gross, eh?
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Under our regs in PA, most of the bio waste from medical facilities is required to be made unrecognizable by shredding, incineration, or shrinkwrapping. All of it must be sterilized prior to final disposition of the waste or the incineration ash in a sanitary landfill. There are more facilities that incinerate the waste to produce energy coming on line as well.
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There are days I wonder... I have asked the theorhetical question of my landfill managers, which makes them stop in their tracks, but no, we've never come across any bodies.
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Whatever the prevailing union wage is, usually.
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Air Traffic Controller
Have you ever ordered a pilot to abort mid-takeoff?
CPR Trainer
Is it possible to perform CPR on animals?
Social Security Employee
How do you check to see whether someone claiming disability is actually disabled?
Absolutely! I see it more from the food processing facilities. Guess it beats taking it to the landfill. I'll be honest, though, I get concerned about the nutritional level of some things...
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I still smell it every time, but after the first few minutes, you really don't notice it any more. I can sometimes catch a whiff after the fact, but I don't think anyone but me picks up on it. The smell that keeps on giving is burnt shingles, can't escape that one!
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I'd say that the worst "children" are the ones that try to recycle odd things, such as metal-bearing sludges, or those that accumulate things like tires with all the best intentions. They feel they are going to make money when the "market is up", but most of the time they just make a big mess that gets them in trouble.
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