Tags: DSNY

A small Bodega coffee, a bagel with scallion cream cheese, and a leftover pizza slice. This may sound like the delicious lunch of a New Yorker, but we often forget that our everyday treasures are lined with what we consider trash.

On December 12, Robin Nagle gave a talk “Victory Boulevard, For Real” at the Sunview Luncheonette in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The talk focused on the history of Fresh Kills Landfill and the transformation into Freshkills Park from an anthropologist’s perspective, situating the story of site regeneration in the history, culture, and systems of garbage in New York.

Every January, many cities are stuck dealing with an influx of Christmas trees after they’ve been removed from cozy homes and cast into the city’s waste management system. While Christmas trees may often be left out for landfill dumping, some municipalities and environmentalists have come up with ways to recycle them, keeping trees out of the waste stream.