the.com/landfill
humanity's way of saying out of sight, out of mind, forever.
means an engineered pit where trash gets buried in layers and left to decompose, sort of, for decades or centuries.
from before engineered sites, cities just dumped trash in open pits or oceans; the modern sanitary landfill emerged in 1930s fresno, california, where waste was compacted and covered with soil daily to control rats and stench.
hot dogs decadesburied hot dogs can look edible after 20 years.
newspapers survivearchaeologists find readable newspapers from the 1960s.
methane factorieslandfills are the third-largest human methane source globally.
liners leakeven modern plastic liners are expected to eventually fail.
for instance
fresh kills — once the largest landfill on earth, staten island, closed 2001.
apex regional landfill — nevada site spanning over 2,200 acres, still active.
great pacific garbage patch — not technically a landfill, but the ocean's unofficial one.