Johnson Museum Reflection Essay

I felt that I trip to farm services was underwhelming. I was shocked by how little waste was located on their fields for University of approximately 15,000 students, including the staff and visitors. There were only 20 piles (at most) and composting takes a few months, which suggests that not much compostable waste is going there. Furthermore, it means that much, if not most, of the waste is going to landfills from Cornell. Also, I was under whelmed by the lack of equipment they had to heat and maintain the piles. I always imagine an affiliate of a highly regarded institution would be more automated, especially composting facilities. However, the only thing they had other than dumping trucks was the machine that turned over the compost, which was only run during the warmer months. This lack of equipment shows that it is easy to compost but also emphasizes the limited environmental impact commercial composting can have. The only concern I have from this trip was for the wildlife. The plethora of seagulls that were leaves concern over them possibly picking up the non-compostable or plastic items in the pile that slip through the composting system at Cornell, which could cause these seagulls harm (by …show more content…
It gave a different perspective on the idea reusing waste. When we think about using waste, we think about either composting the item or reusing the item for the same purpose until it’s unusable. However, going here changes that idealism, because we saw many artworks using waste products (for example, the sheets of metal from wreck automobile into what I saw as a body). This piece was interesting to me because the scrap metal was not directly influence my planned obsolescence because they were not dispose of because they were old, rather they were part of a destroyed vehicle, which I assumed based on the theme of the room. It was a great experience and I hope to volunteer there in the near