The dump or land fill is unlike any other place, it has sea gulls, a constant breeze and so many different smells—all at once. it is a place where you will see every kind of junk, from furniture, clothing, appliances, wood, drywall, food trash, toys, metal, steel, and just about any garbage you can imagine. What is so interesting looking at it all is that every single thing there was once new and payed for with money people thought enough of to work to buy it. All the old, torn, dirty clothing, the torn and broken mattresses and box springs which at one time cost thousands of dollars [ I know because I’ve picked them up from mansions. It is truly amazing just how much is thrown away in this country…every day.
When I get a call to pick up someone’s junk, or what they just don’t want anymore, I take what I can that is still of some value to the Salvation Army or Goodwill. If the things are too far gone they go to the dump or land fill. I’ve taken the entire contents of homes to the dump. From the carpet I tore out, dressers, book cases, cabinets, dining tables, coffee tables and end tables, refrigerators, washers, dryers and electronics. When I get a house that is a hoarding situation there is no telling what kind of trash I will be bringing here.
When you first enter you are amazed at the sheer volume of garbage that is there. As you throw off your load of various kinds of junk, you feel the Earth shake as the monstrous machines move around you, at sometimes uncomfortably close proximity. They are the artificial dinosaurs that scoop and pick up and smash and carry every kind of trash from one giant fifty foot tall mountain, to another.
15 foot tall Bulldozers thunder just a few feet past as I’m throwing off a couch, pushing ten thousand pounds of debris as if it were a few pieces of paper. Giant Caterpillars on 100 feet up on top of a mountain of garbage, picking up and transferring a thousand pounds at a time of what seems to be as only a milk carton. there are so many things happening all at once at this place. To your left a 30 foot tall Caterpillar picks up an 8 foot sofa bed like it is a twig, on your right, a Bulldozer pushes thousands of pounds past you, the six foot high tires rolling only a few feet away.
The dump is a place where you need very much to have your wits about you. It can be dangerous if you aren’t aware of what is going on around you. You will have people on ether side of you throwing off everything from tables, dressers, lumber and all kinds of junk that can do a lot of damage if you get in the way. it is a place where you are not asleep. There are specific areas designated for wood, green wast, rock and concrete, and general household wast such as couches, beds, cabinets, metal, steel, roofing material and food trash. It’s a place you want to get in and out of as quickly as possible.
In the afternoon there can be a long wait to get in. I’ve seen many times when it took 30 minutes to get to the scales. After your truck has been weighed and you have payed it’s time to go to the place designated for you to off load your junk. I like to go at night because it is much quieter, the later it is, the fewer other trucks, just the giant machines moving around, scooping and picking up all the debris. I’ve been at the dump in Sun Valley witch is open 24 / 7 at all hours of the day and night throwing off furniture and garbage of all kinds. I have been there pulling off loads of trash at 2, 3, 4 and 5 AM, when I worked all night trash-out jobs. No other dump I know of In Los Angeles is open these hours.
Everyone should make a field trip at least once to the dump, it is an experience not easily forgotten.