Hidden America: From Coal Miners to Cowboys, an Extraordinary Exploration of the Unseen People Who Make This Country Work

In this last section, Laskas shadows the workers at the Puente Hills Landfill in California. She describes the daily operations of the landfill: trash is taken to one of three “cell[s]” each “about the size of a football field” (284), bulldozers push the trash into rows, and then “mighty Bomags, 120,000-pound compacters […], smash and crunch and squish the trash, forcing out air, forcing it tighter and tighter to save space” (284). When a cell reaches capacity, scrapers come in and cover the trash with dirt, “sealing in odors, rats, bugs, concealing the leftovers of a yesterday everyone is more than ready to be done with” (284). Next, water trucks spray down the dirt to keep dust under control, while human paper pickers secure anything that “the wind might pick up and try to carry away,” especially plastic grocery bags (285).

Puente Hills has been used a landfill since the 1960s, when it was still a “series of canyons.” Now, “it’s a mountain,” which will reach capacity in November 2013. Laskas shadows Herman, who drives a “tractor-trailer full of trash assigned to him each day” (277). Herman, like many of the workers Laskas has met, loves his job, and is not looking forward to retirement.