Couple ventures on a journey of solid waste across the country
- July 11, 2013
- By Mark Fisk | WRN correspondent
Margaret Morales stands next to a sign
near the Vancouver Municipal landfill as the couple began
their journey of landfills and solid waste facilities.
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Phil Corrigan and Margaret Morales are on a junk junket.
The young married couple don't have jobs or a place to call home, yet they're traveling across the country in a jam-packed 2007 golden Kia Sportage on a three-month journey of discovery about America's solid waste and recycling industry.
"What we're doing is driving kind of in a 'U' shape around the country visiting anything that has to do with garbage," Corrigan said. "It's to find out how people think about garbage more than it is to find a solution or if there is a problem or what kind of problem it is."
What the couple learn on their journey they share through stories and pictures with readers of their blog TheTrashBlog.com. Their ultimate goal is to educate themselves and the public about recycling, and how solid waste gets handled and where it winds up.
Corrigan, 25, says they both came up with the idea for the journey. However, Morales, 26, tells a different story, saying sometime before they got married about two years ago, she was "on a kick" and "sort of ready" to end the couple's relationship when Phil "came up with this crazy idea and I got totally distracted."
"He came up with this idea of a driving documentary trip around garbage and waste," said Morales, who has filmed a short documentary on environmental artist Bryant Holsenbeck.
So on May 3, the couple headed south from Vancouver, British Columbia, where Morales had completed her master's degree in resource management and environmental studies at the University of British Columbia.
In Seattle, the couple stopped at what Corrigan called his favorite facility on the trip. With his background as a social worker, he picked Seattle's Seadrunar Recycling center as his favorite in part because it trains and employs people recovering from addiction and helps fund the Seattle Drug & Narcotic Center.
"Seeing garbage as a resource ... that's useful to people — I'm intrigued by that," he said. "There's lots of different groups that do that now in the United States. But they're the ones we saw first."
Their journey then took them along the West Coast to Southern California before they headed east where they made another eye-opening stop.
"We were in Oklahoma City, and we were speaking with people about all the debris from the tornadoes that hit there and what happened to it and how that changes the landfill's lifespan and things like that. It's an interesting story," said Corrigan, adding that it's one of several stories they'll likely post after their trip ends.
Farther east, the couple stopped in Miami, where they spoke recently via telephone about the trip, including logistics such as lodging and funding.
They said they don't have a sponsor; they're funding the trip though savings.
"It was something that we were kind of anticipating," Corrigan said. "We kind of aimed to make sure we could finance it."
They said they do stay with family and friends to cut down on costs.
"We have not yet slept in the car," Corrigan said. "Camping is the most common form of lodging for us. We also seem to know a lot of people. We designed our route to aim for people we know."
Laundromats also are a frequent stop, but they sometimes wash clothes at family and friends' homes. And yes, they have busted a couple of myths about people in the waste and recycling industry.
"We've read in books that people actually had to sneak onto landfills to get pictures or whatever," Corrigan said. "So far ... I've found everyone I've talked to very accommodating. They've been eager to talk about what they do. They're down to earth."
In Miami, the couple had completed about two-thirds of their trip. They planned to head up the East Coast before ending their journey in New York City on Aug. 1.
Afterwards, there's that little matter of finding jobs and a place to call home.
"We don't know where home is," Corrigan said, admitting that they discuss it often on the trip. "We have a couple of favorite spots in the country. But it's also going to be dependent on jobs."
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