Weber’s Pit

As best I can understand, some of my garbage slumbers here in Weber’s Pit–somewhere underfoot or in the aspiring ski-slope atop the cumbrous piles. Until the late 1970s, this was just farmland. Then, the construction company Weber dug out sand as the foundation for the motorway Utrecht-’s Hertogenbosch, creating a huge pit. Now of course the pit is nowhere to be seen. A part of it was filled up with garbage that eventually rose a respectable distance into the air while another part filled up with water, as tends to happen with pits in the Netherlands.

From on top of the bump, I bet I could get a pretty good view of Utrecht, but not today. It’s indecently cold and wet and blustery. Even the measly trees look sorry they ended up in this mess.

Following the Trail

When I lived in Utrecht, as a student, the garbage from the city was first taken to a wharf, where the trash was transfered to barges. The wharf has now been turned into a park, because the site is too contaminated to do anything else with it.

The trash was dumped in the Mastwijkse Plas, a pond that may have been dug for sand originally. In the leaden winter light, without a leaf on the trees, the place looks just about as disconsolate as it is possible for a pond to look.