EMERGENCY
I feel the Earth is so full to bursting with the waste that we try to hide under it's surface that I wouldn't be surprised to see cracks appearing and the stuffing escaping.
These ideas stem from thinking about the potent mixture of waste products I put into my own bin, which I then seal up in a black plastic bag to be added to the concoction of the many thousands of similarly discarded plastics, packaging, bottles, tubs and trays, chemicals, toxins, minerals and organic matter all pressured together in a bubbling, gaseous exchange.
Who knows what this might produce?
Putting my waste outside for someone else to deal with feels like an abdication of responsibility and although much of the waste in my bin is from unnecessary or un-recyclable packaging I still buy into the disposable lifestyle. It is a dilemma between environmental awareness and self-gratification.
It would be great if my rubbish turned into something wonderful, but the truth is nobody knows what is going on down there.
I have been reading about chlorines used in the bleaching process of paper and how these chemicals create dioxins in the landfill site that are mutagenic. They can cause genetic changes by bonding to the DNA structure of living cells. Old car tyres in landfill can capture explosive methane gas which can float the tyre to the surface where it has been known to burst through the ground with enormous force.All sorts of improbable things could be forming within the confines of the landfill site. It seems a dangerous place yet once full it is grassed over or built on.
I wanted to bring the problem back to the domestic setting hence the emergence of waste materials through the living room carpet. Maybe if mutant growths from landfill did sprout up from the living room floor people might take notice. It’s harder to ignore a situation when it permeates your own home.
I also wanted the growths to be ambiguous – neither obviously malevolent or harmless and to show an exuberance of spirit, a rebirth of the discarded material.