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Pauline Claridge lives near a volcano, but this one doesn’t spew lava; it churns out thick, noxious-smelling smoke and it’s made of trash.
Arnolds Field landfill, just half a mile from Claridge’s home in Rainham, is an undulating swatch of scrubby land spanning roughly 40 acres. Locals know it as the “Rainham volcano” because every year, when the weather heats up, it bursts into flames, sending plumes of acrid smoke over nearby homes, parks and schools.
Claridge, who has the chronic lung condition COPD, can tell when the landfill is on fire. “It’s just an awful, rancid smell,” she said. Her COPD was not caused by the fires but she believes it’s severely exacerbated by them.
As soon as she and her husband Stan catch a whiff of the familiar, toxic-smelling scent, they rush to switch on fans and humidifiers and shut all their windows, even in the stifling heat of summer. It’s a pattern repeated throughout the warm months.
The landfill is “a volcano, and you’re just waiting (thinking) when’s it going to go?” Claridge said. “It’s an unbearable way to live.”
What’s unfolding in this corner of London is not unique.
Humanity produces ever-increasing amounts of trash, only a sliver of which is recycled. The vast majority ends up in landfills often located in low-income communities lacking the power to push back against the noise, air pollution and choking smoke that often accompany them.
In Rainham, a London suburb with significant pockets of deprivation, residents feel trapped in a cycle of inaction.
The landowner didn’t respond to CNN requests for an interview, but has previously told media outlets that it would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars just to apply for planning permission, and he has been given no assurances it would be successful.
Read about efforts to determine what lurks beneath the ground – and what can be done about it – at the link in @cnn’s bio.
📸: Toby Hancock/CNN | Graphics: Google Maps, London Borough of Havering Council, London Fire Brigade, Romford Recorder/Lou Robinson, CNN
