That's Garbage!

This is going to be a short post, but I had to share this you you.

I wrote yesterday about my trip to Staten Island and mentioned briefly about the giant Fresh Kills Landfill. As I normally do these days, i was reading some of the history today of the great dump and I came across this stat:

In 2001, the last year of operation, the Fresh Kills Landfill was taller than the Statue Of Liberty!!!

That's one big heap of garbage. If it was to be opened for its expected lifespan, it would have become the tallest spot on the EAST COAST, larger in mass than the Great Wall Of China and the final sign of the apocalypse. Its amazing to me that it took so long for it to be shut down.

In the hey-day of dumping in Fresh Kills, almost 13,000 tons of garbage was dumped there a day. New York is still throwing away garbage at an alarming rate...almost half of it is paper product. Maybe its about time we all start recycling, huh? If over 75% of our daily garbage can be easily recycled, how come there aren't more recycling bins on the streets than garbage cans. It saves money, good for business and is absolutely integral for us to save this planet.

Change is slow and politicians are lazy...but that's one man's opinion.

sidenote: the landfill is set to be turned into a park 3 times the size of central park. There will be nature trails, kayaking, ball fields a 9/11 memorial and room for 7 wind turbines expecting to produce enough energy to power 5,000 housholds.