Landscapes of Waste: What’s in a Name?: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Landfills and Dumps

The Technophile: The United States and Ways of Forgetting

The Western world’s obsession with cleanliness and sanitation clearly translates into the vision for the modern landfill. Relying on science, technology and engineering, the U.S. has devised ways to conceal garbage from urban residents. By proclaiming the success of modern sanitation system, the West has asserted triumph over the issues of garbage elimination. Experts interpret new technology and standards for landfills as a utopia when compared to the traditional dumps previously utilized. A high degree of technophilia surrounds the United States’ vision of waste management and adds to the utopian vision of our modern-day sanitation system. Technophilia can be defined as an unbridled enthusiasm for technology. Both social scientists (Baym) and psychologists (Richards) have examined this issue from various points of study. Technophilia and technophobia are the two extremes of the relationship between technology and society. The technophile regards most or all technology positively, adopts new forms of technology enthusiastically, and sees it as a means to improve life and combat social problems. If we consider technophile as it pertains to landfills, we can see how the reliance on new technologies obfuscates the serious issues surrounding our overproduction of trash. But these new, high-tech landfills are not infallible: ground liners can leak and contaminate water; natural decomposition cannot occur in a landfill because the trash is compacted disallowing oxygen to assist in the process; and ultimately there is only a finite amount of room to dump trash. 

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