Tag Archives: landfill

International, U.S.

Government & Military Incompetence: Dumping of soldiers’ bodies bigger than first thought. Proof the Generals and Admirals don’t give a rat’s ass about you peons, you’re nothin’ but cannon fodder!

“What the hell? We spent millions, tens of millions, to find any trace of soldiers killed, and they’re concerned about a ‘massive’ effort to go back and pull out the files and find out how many soldiers were disrespected this way?”-Rush Holt, U.S. House of Representatives for New Jersey

Last month an investigation was conducted, after three whistle blowers revealed that bodies, and body parts of service men and women, killed in action, were being disrespected by being thrown into Virginia trash dumps.

“They have known that they were doing something disgusting, and they were doing everything they could to keep it from us!”-Gari-Lynn Smith, husband killed in Iraq and whose body parts were thrown in the trash by the U.S. Air Force

The investigation revealed that this is big.  The U.S. Air Force handles mortuary duties at Dover AFB, Delaware.  The mortuary director, Trevor Dean, admitted the practice goes back as far as 1996!

Air Force officials say they threw the cremated remains in the landfills because the family members signed releases saying they could do so.  However, those releases specified the remains would be disposed of in a dignified way.  Air Force Lieutenant General Darrel Jones was asked by the Washington Post if throwing them in the trash was dignified?  His response was: “The way we’re doing it today is much better.”

What’s the new way?  Why, they’re now dumping them in the ocean!  Did these Air Force wing nuts ever hear of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier?

“The Tomb of the Unknown is one of our nation’s most hallowed places, guarded around the clock, regardless of weather, every day of the year. We owe this spirit of reverence not only to the unknown service members entombed at Arlington, but to all those who wear the uniform to protect and defend our freedom.”-joint statement by House Representatives Darrell Issa for California and Elijah Cummings for Maryland

Don’t think the new Defense Secretary, Leon Panetta is upset: “The secretary is comfortable with the way the Air Force has handled this.”-John Kirby, Captain U.S. Navy, Pentagon

Of the more than 2,700 body parts that were cremated and dumped, 274 were identified as individuals.  Obviously there’s more.  For one the Air Force never told the trash haulers, or the landfill operators that they were dumping human remains.  Hell, in some parts of this country (depends on local laws) it’s actually illegal to dump human remains into landfills!

“It’s a moral thing. Someone killed overseas fighting for our country, I wouldn’t want them buried, any part of them, in the landfill.”-Jeff Jenkins, manager of King George landfill

The operators of the main landfill used, King George in Virginia, are considering legal action against the Air Force.

“Obviously, we would be opposed to taking cremated remains of our servicemen and servicewomen and putting them in our landfill. But it sounds like a lot of us were pulled in unknowingly to this unfortunate situation with the Air Force.”-Lisa Kardell, Waste Management, operator of King George landfill

This is more proof that the 1% Elitist leaders of our country don’t care about any of the 99%’s service, we’re all just cannon fodder for their games!

 

Idaho, Technology

No Glass or Styrofoam Recycling in SE Idaho?

Today I was dropping off my recyclables at the dumpsters next to Pocatello City Hall, when a city employee told me I was wasting my time dropping off the glass and styrofoam. He said the glass and styrofoam dumpster went straight to the landfill.

This is not the first time I’ve heard this. Many years ago the folks at the local Pacific Steel & Recycling told me the same thing. Well, I’ve had lots of arguments over the years with residents (and even my kids argued with some of their grade school teachers) who believe that you can recycle glass and styrofoam locally. After the City of Pocatello labeled a small dumpster for glass and styrofoam I thought, maybe I was wrong. Nope, the city employee confirmed that the glass and styrofoam is not recycled. His reason was the same reason Pacific Steel & Recycling gave me years ago; no local south eastern Idaho glass or styrofoam recyclers/manufacturers, and it is too expensive to ship out of the area. It’s just thrown in the local landfill.

I decided to double check this, and sure enough, looking at the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality website (www.deq.idaho.gov), there are no glass or styrofoam recyclers in south eastern Idaho. The nearest Eastern Idaho recycler taking glass is in the City of Driggs, in Teton County, which is about 125 miles northwest of where I live. There are glass recyclers in North Central Idaho, Central Idaho, Western Idaho, Southern Idaho and Northern Idaho, but not in the south eastern part of Eastern Idaho (and only the one in all of Eastern Idaho). Most recycled glass, in the areas of Idaho that do recycle it, end up being used in road projects.

The DEQ website lists Adams County (on the west side of Idaho) as a styrofoam recycler, but, when I checked their web site I couldn’t find any mention of styrofoam recycling (www.co.adams.id.us). It looks like there’s no styrofoam recycling anywhere in Idaho.

So why did the City of Pocatello label a recycling dumpster for glass and styrofoam? The city employee said they got tired of people throwing glass and styrofoam into the dumpsters labeled for cardboard, plastic or aluminum & tin (even though there’s numerous signage asking people not to). So they simply grabbed a small dumpster and labeled it for glass and styrofoam, and haul it to the dump when it’s full.