The West Landfill is a garbage dump covering an extension of several square kilometers, bordering with Nezahualcóyotl City and the Mexico City Benito Juárez Airport. The ground it now occupies was once part of ancient Lake Texcoco, and belongs to the land protected by the Mexican federal government under the same name. The trash in this landfill is compacted in platforms one meter high, which also function as a levee for a reservoir called Lake Churubusco. The lake takes in wastewater coming from the sewage in the surroundings. The water is black and oily; gas bubbles up to the surface. I spot some small, thin, limp birds sitting on the ripples, rummaging in the rubbish. The mouth of the main sewage pipe produces a white, dense, abundant foam that flows over to the lake’s shores, landing at our feet. Neighborhoods of this state of Mexico municipality are separated from the landfill by a wall and several strings of barbed wire. A prison also borders the wall: surveillance towers loom at the opposite side of the landfill, anticipating the escape of inmates towards the waste fields. [...]
Landfill
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