A while back, Jordan, one of my fellow drivers, took me on an impromptu tour of the Waste Barn. How does McMurdo deal with all of our trash, recyclables, and waste? Well....
sorting bins
FIRST, we sort all of our trash into a myriad of categories: plastic, aluminum, glass, paper, cardboard, wood, ferrous metal, burnables, food waste, medical waste, biological waste, human waste (yes thats exrement folks!) and the amorphous "construction debris" which is really a catch-all for non-recyclables.
NEXT, these bins are collected and brought up to the Waste Barn.
the waste barn
quonset hut: the waste barn is rusty
inside the waste barn: some of the loaders the Wasties use to cart our waste around
Here, the "Wasties" have the daily task of checking our sorting abilities, and packaging our waste.
glass, sorted by color
paper to be recycled
plastic bailing machine
cardboard bailing machine
THIRD, the properly sorted and bailed waste is stored according to need. Might it smell bad if it is left in the heat? The food waste is stored outside, to keep it cold. Might it smell bad no matter what? The human waste from field camps (where there are no outhouses!) is stored in specific milvans. The human waste from McMurdo itself is treated at the waste treatment plant...but thats another post!
food waste boxes: we could feed a starving nation with what we throw away here!
FINALLY, when the supply ship arrives in a month, milvans full of our waste will be loaded onto the ship for its return trip to the US. Most of our waste gets burned. Therefore, they like to say we have a very high recycling rate. However, I don't agree with some of the things we burn here- including thin plastics!
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