Where does the garbage go

Where does the garbage go

In our school we are learning about garbage. Last week our teacher told us about the way things used to be.

She said there was a time when people who wanted to get rid of something just threw it into the garbage can. They threw in garbage like orange peels, chicken bones, the food they didn't eat. They threw in trash, too--empty bottles, tin cans, cardboard boxes, old newspapers. When you put garbage and trash together, you call it waste.

Once a week the waste was collected in trucks and taken out to the dump. In the dump there were piles of garbage everywhere and all kinds of trash-old tires, broken bottles, tin cans, old newspapers, broken chairs and sofas. In summer the garbage rotted and made a terrible stink. Rats came to eat it. Millions of flies buzzed around. The dump was a great big mess. Today some towns still have dumps where they leave their garbage and trash.

At one time New York City used the ocean for its dump. It loaded its waste on flat boats called barges. Tugboats pulled the barges out to sea, and the waste was dumped overboard. Most of the trash sank, but some of it floated. Often it floated right back to the beaches where people were swimming. Ugh! Yeccch!

New York City doesn't throw its waste in the ocean anymore. It has a special kind of dump called a landfill. Other cities have landfills, too. Our town has one, and our class went out and looked at it. A landfill is a busy place. Trucks bring loads of waste from the city and dump it in big piles. Bulldozers with scrapers spread out the waste. Compactors with spikes on their wheels move back and forth over it. The waste is all mashed and piled. ?