Landfills Burning, Yet Again.
This time in Coimbatore - and yet again in Delhi.
What If a Landfill Wrote a Poem?
As today is a Sunday, I wanted to see if we can actually rest our discussions about EPR, IWM and ESG, but just think about the planet, our country, our cities in general.
We'd have all heard about the recent (yet again) burning of landfills in Coimbatore and Delhi.
So, much so. I wrote a poem.
From a landfill's perspective.
👇
I rise.
A mountain built of cast-off dreams.
A tomb for futures, broken, lost, it seems.
My belly churns, a furnace hot and deep,
Where waste screams and forgotten memories weep.
They call me progress, a place to hide their shame,
A silent giant, choked by endless flame.
The air I breathe, a toxic, burning haze,
Aching lungs cough, a pyre in endless daze.
Once fertile fields, where life danced in the sun,
Now choked by trash, the battle's almost won.
The birds don't sing, the wind whispers a plea,
Will they ever learn, the cost of what they see?
I hold their secrets, whispers in the ash,
Of toys once cherished, a love that couldn't last.
Each burning ember, a story left untold,
A world consumed by a hunger, fierce and cold.
Is this their legacy, a poisoned, burning scar?
Can they not see, the damage from afar?
I weep in flames, a silent, burning plea,
Oh, children of Earth, can you not set me free?
______________
The stark reality of today is that 90% of all wastes end up in landfills or ocean bodies.
Yes, we are talking about sending rockets to Mars, but we can't manage our wastes in the only habitable planet we have.
Most of what we throw away just gets dumped in landfills, and like you saw with those fires in Delhi and Coimbatore, that can be a real disaster.
Landfills can catch fire for a few reasons.
Sometimes decomposing food releases flammable gas that builds up and explodes. Other times people start fires themselves to clear space, and that can get way out of control.
Plus, if all sorts of junk gets mixed together, like chemicals and batteries, that can spark fires too.
These fires are horrible for everyone.
They spew out pollution that makes it hard to breathe, especially for people with asthma.
The water used to fight the fires can leak nasty stuff into the ground and mess up the water we drink.
And of course, the smoke itself irritates people's eyes and skin.
So what can we do?
Well, for starters, we can all be more careful about sorting our trash. If we separate recyclables and compost food scraps, there's less flammable stuff going to landfills.
We also need better recycling programs and composting options.
Plus, landfills should have systems to capture that flammable gas and maybe even use it to generate electricity. 🤩
But it's not just individuals.
We need the government to step in too.
They can make rules about sorting trash and encourage companies to make less wasteful products.
They can also invest in better ways to manage landfills and put a stop to polluters who don't play by the rules.
If we all work together, we can stop these landfill fires and find a more sustainable way to deal with our waste.
It's time to clean things up, for our planet and for ourselves.