The construction dumpster is a unique
and universal urban form, visible in nearly every western city. It is a utilitarian
form dictated by a need for mobility from the construction site to waste plant,
and it is a collector of urban debris, a sort of cabinet of wonder of what
society deems expendable.
This photographic series began as a documentation
of construction site dumpsters around Indianapolis, and grew into an obsession,
eventually including examples from as far as Helsinki, and Estonia. In the
past two years I have photographed nearly 200 construction site dumpsters,
amazed at their holdings and attuned to the profound waste accumulated by
the construction industry. According to Environmental Building News up to
30% of the US annual landfill waste stream is associated with remodeling and
making buildings; and construction and demolition in the US account for 136,000,000
tons of waste a year.
The flow of garbage from the city, from
construction sites is relentless, the transferring a mad ballet, the landfill
a wasteland. Following one of the construction dumpsters in Indianapolis,
takes you to the 334 processing plant. Here over 150 roll-off dumpsters -
many from construction sites -are processed daily, along with 150-200 garbage
trucks, and 5-10 smaller trailers. Selected dumpster loads are sorted for
cardboard, steel, or concrete chunks. Everything else, along with sorting
operation debris, is transferred into 80-cubic-yard trailers and transported
to the Twin Bridges landfill site; 32 18-wheeler trailers every day.
I am done photographing dumpsters. -- wes janz
