"Waste Management Worker"

BY VIOLET SMITH

She works for one of the few waste management and treatment sites in Lancaster County as an environmental scientist. Having gotten her bachelor’s in environmental science, she is dedicated to a career that will aid in healing the environment one step at a time. Her work, however, may come at the cost of her physical health. 

I work for ERC, the Environmental Recovery Association. We process, treat, and recycle both liquid and solid chemical waste. Some of it is on-site work, and some of it comes back to the lab with us. Regardless, it all has to go somewhere, and it’s my responsibility to make sure it goes away. I wake up at 4:30 a.m., drop off my daughter at 5:30, drive from Wrightsville to Lancaster City, and begin work at 6:30 a.m. 

The site I work in smells; it reeks of harsh chemicals. Most people don't think about where their chemical waste goes, how it feeds back into the environment and leaks out into the world. The chemicals your local factory spews into your city's water supply all come back to us. Natural habitats that become contaminated by chemical waste, we clean it up. The work is long, tedious, and hazardous. We find the perfect balance of chemicals to correct the mess mankind leaves behind. I never sought out this environment, but it's where I am. 

In the lab, everything is sterilized. Not just the materials, but myself and everything on my person. Perfume, makeup, even a chip from your nail polish — it’s all restricted. Any contaminant ruins the job site. What I do is tedious and exhausting. My coworkers get sick a lot. 

Lou, he was my favorite. He had worked here over 20 years before cancer killed him within two months of his diagnosis. We grieved for one week, and then it was back to work. 

My work comes with dangers I had never given thought to until Lou died. I had never thought about how my work was leeching into my body. Twenty-plus years of working with highly concentrated chemicals and biohazards would have to catch up with you in one way or another. I've been here for four years; I think it’s time to move on.