Dumpster dive | April 2, 2024

• The Middle Dutch word kille means "riverbed" or "water channel," so the Fresh Kills estuary on Staten Island is aptly named, though without the etymology lesson it sounds more like the title of a horror film. When the US opened its first landfill along the estuary banks in 1948, the name carried over and brought irony with it. The Fresh Kills landfill was meant to be temporary, but by 1955 it had become the largest landfill in the world at 2,200 acres, comparable to 1,700 football fields or 1,250 soccer pitches. It finally closed in 2001, and the area is being redeveloped as Freshkills Park, which sounds like another horror film. Popcorn, anyone? "Fresh Kills" happens to be a 2023 film about the mob, also set in Staten Island, and no, I haven't seen it. [Wikipedia]

• Today the titles of world's largest landfill, for both size and capacity, is held by the Apex Regional Landfill near Las Vegas. It opened in 1993 and also spans an area of 2,200 acres. It receives about 9,000 tons of trash each day and is estimated to contain about 50 million US tons. [Guinness World Records]

• Even the world's largest landfill is dwarfed by the 3,400-acre Exxon Petrochemical plant in Baytown, Texas. An aerial photo of the plant was selected as part of an exhibit of over 50 images that documents the "obvious, physical human incursions on the landscape," aka the Anthropocene age. [NPR]

• Landfills account for 20% of global human-caused methane emissions, and new methods for measuring those emissions show that landfills produce 40% more methane than previously reported in the US. Though methane has a shorter lifespan than carbon dioxide, it is 80 times as potent at trapping heat in the atmosphere. You can help by keeping food scraps, paper, wood, and other organic materials out of the garbage and tossing them in the compost and recycling instead. [CNN]

• It was only a matter of time: AI is filling up the internet with garbage spam sites. (I have not and never will use AI to create content on this site. Where's the fun in that?) [PC World]

• A new low in greenwashing: The plastics industry is funding classroom curriculums designed to indoctrinate kids into thinking that plastics are sustainable and good for the environment. Meanwhile, the industry also blames the plastic pollution problem on individual consumers. The math doesn't add up. [Washington Post]

• On the topic of learning, scientists have found that plastics contain 3,000 more chemicals than previously identified, upping the total from 13,000 to more than 16,000. Only 6% are regulated internationally and at least 4,000 are believed to be hazardous to human health and the environment. [Reuters]

• Save the date: Stop Food Waste Day is April 24.

Photo by Kevin Butz on Unsplash