landfill news stories on Newser

Remains of 9/11 Victims Dumped in Landfill

Matt Cantor — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 13:48:23 CST

Small, incinerated portions of the remains of 9/11 victims ended up in a landfill, the Pentagon has acknowledged for the first time. The remains of victims of the attacks in Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon, too small to identify, were brought to the Dover Air Force Base mortuary, where they...

Remains of 274 Troops Dumped in Landfill

Rob Quinn — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 05:00:00 CST

The remains of far more troops were dumped in a Virginia landfill than the military has previously acknowledged, the Washington Post has discovered after pressing the Air Force for information. Records from the Dover Air Force Base mortuary show that the cremated partial remains of at least 274 troops were...

Jersey Fixing Landfill Odors... With Air Freshener

Evann Gastaldo — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 09:52:00 CDT

New Jersey insists it doesn’t stink , but at least one city does—and it’s attempting to fix the problem with hundreds of gallons of air freshener. East Brunswick residents have been assaulted for years by aromas wafting from the 200-acre-plus Middlesex County Landfill, where more than 1,000 tons of...

Indian Tribe Doesn't Want US Trash on Sacred Land

Evann Gastaldo — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 12:04:00 CDT

Hawaii's landfill space is in such short supply, the state decided to transport thousands of tons of trash 2,600 miles to Washington. Making the journey even more bizarre: The waste would travel over the Yakama Indians' sacred hunting grounds to get to its destination, and the tribe is none...

America's Worst Recycling Cities

Rob Quinn — Wed, 13 May 2009 06:36:00 CDT

The average American city recycles about a third of its waste, but the lack of any unified national standard for trash disposal means some cities rate way, way, below average. Mother Jones lists those with the biggest trash piles: Oklahoma City recycles only 3% of its waste. Households have to...

McAuliffe Tack: Virginia Is for Garbage Lovers

Gabriel Winant — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 10:06:14 CDT

For Terry McAuliffe, the former Democratic party chief turned Virginia gubernatorial candidate, the way to Old Dominion’s heart runs through trash. “I love trash," he tells Dana Milbank of the Washington Post . "I love chicken litter, cow manure, garbage. This is the kind of thing that gets me excited.” Apparently,...

Recession Harbinger: Less Trash

Harry Kimball — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 13:15:51 CDT

The current recession was fairly clear to a certain segment of the population as far back as late 2007, the Washington Post reports—landfill operators. Since then, dumps and garbage collectors have seen a steep drop-off in trash—in some cases up to 30%—along with their own jobs. It's...

Under Italy's Mob, Toxic Trash Heaps Growing

Matt Cantor — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 15:24:36 CDT

Heaps of garbage tower in southern Italy’s legal and illegal dumps, and may even be contributing to cancer and birth defects in the area—but the mafia’s grip on disposal makes it near impossible to fix the problem, the Los Angeles Times reports. “For years the waste has been accumulating,...

Italy Calls In Shrinks for Garbage Crisis

Harry Kimball — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:50:03 CDT

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has a “final solution" to Naples' trash problem—and it includes psychologists, Der Spiegel reports. Naples, whose overflowing landfills have led to intermittently trash-choked streets for years, will soon be invaded by an army of volunteers, including a group of psychologists trained in counseling disaster...