Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island was New York City’s primary landfill from 1948 to 2001. Thousands of tons of daily garbage composed the largest man-made structure on Earth.
In 2001 the landfill was finally closed, with a brief reopening to accommodate the World Trade Center wreckage. Since then it’s been the site of Freshkills Park, a 30-year project to cover and slowly open parts of the former landfill.
While the trash of New York City ships to other states, the park’s decomposing refuse mounds generate methane gas that National Grid sells back to the island’s inhabitants.
Click here to watch the PBS Thirteen video about the evolution of this landfill.
There are hundreds of hours of full PBS and Thirteen programs streaming commercial-free at Thirteen.org/video, including Nature, Antiques Roadshow, Frontline, Masterpiece, PBS Newshour, Wide Angle and NOVA in addition to local shows like Reel13, Worldfocus, It’s the Economy, NY, and The City Concealed.
