Sacred Garbage

If you had a small piece of the Twin Towers, it would presumably be of great value. (Imagine the bidding on eBay.)

But the whole giant heap of it is nothing but an embarrassment, likely offered on the international market for a song.

January 26, 2002 — There's a brief article in the San Francisco Chronicle about the sale of scrap metal from the World Trade Center. Some 300,000 tons of structural steel are expected to be recovered from the ruins, and much of it will be sold to India and China for recycling.

Interestingly, this is an example where trash is hallowed by association with an important and highly emotional event and suddenly achieves an elevated status. Now it's not dirty. First of all, it isn't garbage when it is "crime scene evidence." But even after it ceases to be an object of study, it doesn't revert to its normal value in the market place.

Imbued with meaning and carrying all the burdens of our unresolved emotions, it is transformed into a thing of great value that can be debased by being sold. As Ching-Ching Ni (the reporter) puts it, in a sentence that folds back on itself in a most curious way, "For some victims' families, however, the selling of the steel that entombed their loved ones could prove an example of cold-hearted global trade."

To do it justice and properly set store by it, a portion of the debris will be donated for use in a memorial.

Marijke Rijsberman

More Information

To read more:
China buys tons of scrap from NY (San Francisco Chronicle)
ISRI Assists in Cleanup (American Iron and Steel Institute)

Or see a picture:
Wreckage from the World Trade Center (San Francisco Chronicle)