Dive Brief:
- While some of the waste Americans generate is diverted from landfills through recycling and composting, a majority of the waste still reaches the landfill, where it will stay indefinitely.
- Eventually these sites reach capacity and stop receiving waste. There are approximately 10,000 shuttered landfills in the United States, many of which are finding a new lease on life as innovative ideas for repurposing the land are explored.
- Former landfills are transformed into nature preserves, ski resorts and golf courses. A landfill in California is now a popular amphitheater, and there are talks about creating a vegetable garden at a current site in Colorado.
Dive Insight:
The amount of waste generated by Americans reached 251 million tons in 2012, according to figures released by the EPA. These numbers have continued to climb since the 1960s.
