Environment
Is Garbage a Product of Bad Design?
A team of architects and planners has set out to prove that heaps of waste aren’t an immutable part of a city’s topography.
New York City is an island of imported goods. The city’s main export, though, is trash.
The Department of Sanitation (DSNY) heaves more than 12,000 tons of waste each day; private haulers are conscripted to lug some festering freight, too. Though some organics or recyclables are diverted, most of the debris ends up offloaded in landfills hundreds of miles away.