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landfills (garbage dumps)

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The famous photo of the eyes from The Great Gatsby.

How “The Great Gatsby” Changed the Landscape of New York City

On Robert Moses, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and the culture of environmental waste.
by John Marsh via Monthly Review on November 13, 2024
People scavenging through garbage on a barge in New York City

A History of Garbage

The history of garbage dumps is the history of America.
by Livia Gershon, Sarah Hill via JSTOR Daily on November 10, 2023
Sanitation truck.

W.A.S.T.E. Not

John Scanlan’s “The Idea of Waste” argues that all civilization is an attempt to make waste disappear.
by Madeleine Adams via The Baffler on May 15, 2025
A pile of trash at a landfill behind a member of the Army Corps of Engineers.

The History of New York, Told Through Its Trash

In 1948, the landfill at Fresh Kills was marketed to Staten Island as a stopgap measure. No one guessed that it would remain open for more than half a century.
by Robin Kaiser-Schatzlein via The New Yorker on April 24, 2021
Scott Jordan in his apartment.

The Artifact Artist

New York’s 300-year-old trash becomes treasure in the hands of an urban archaeologist.
by Russ Kendall via Aeon on April 5, 2021

A Filthy History: When New Yorkers Lived Knee-Deep in Trash

How garbage physically shaped the development of New York.
by Hunter Oatman-Stanford, Robin Nagle via Collectors Weekly on June 24, 2013
A ragpicker collects recyclable materials at a landfill.

Why Recycling Is Mostly Garbage

In two new books, the rise of recycling is a story of illusory promises, often entwined with disturbing political agendas.
by Daniela Blei via The New Republic on September 27, 2024
Boats carry Hanford Journey attendees down the Columbia River in Washington toward Hanford reactors.

Indigenous Celebration of Hanford Remembers the Site Before Nuclear Contamination

At the fourth annual Hanford Journey, Yakama Nation youth, elders and scientists share stories about a land that is a part of them.
by B. 'Toastie' Oaster via High Country News on August 1, 2024
The recycling symbol.

How the Recycling Symbol Got America Addicted to Plastic

Corporations sold Americans on the chasing arrows — while stripping the logo of its worth.
by Kate Yoder via Grist on June 12, 2024
Syringes on the beach.

Hypodermics on the Shore

The “syringe tides”—waves of used hypodermic needles, washing up on land—terrified beachgoers of the late 1980s. Their disturbing lesson was ignored.
by Jeremy A. Greene via The Atlantic on August 29, 2023
Chainlink fence in a desert with a danger sign warning of arsenic poison

The Toxic Legacy of the Gold Rush

Almost 175 years after the Gold Rush began, Californians are left holding the bag for thousands of abandoned mines.
by Leah Campbell via Gizmodo on May 15, 2023
A 9/11 memorial

Relic Steel

After 9/11, hundreds of pieces of steel debris were catalouged. Much of it ended up in small municipal memorials and in other locations around the country.
by Max Holleran, Samuel Holleran via Places Journal on September 1, 2021
White Sands National Park on a sunny day.

The Lure of the White Sands

Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, Geronimo, Robert Oppenheimer, Steven Spielberg, and the mysteries of New Mexico's desert.
by Rich Cohen via New York Review of Books on March 29, 2021

American Beauties

How plastic bags came to rule our lives, and why we can’t quit them.
by Rebecca Altman via Topic on August 1, 2018
A pile of trash on the street in New York, 1911.
partner

The Pig Apple

The story of the thousands of free-range pigs who managed New York’s waste in the 1800s.
via BackStory on August 4, 2016
Empty plastic bottles to be recycled.
partner

Cashing In

How big business lies behind early efforts to encourage Americans to recycle.
via BackStory on August 4, 2016

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