Back in 1990, the New York City Department of Sanitation operated Freshkills as a landfill. The trash from the five city boroughs arrived by barge and truck. Over fifty years, four large mounds grew. Heavy machinery graded the slope of the mounds with layers of trash and soil. Seagulls searched for edible scraps. There were nets covering the barges but winds still littered the waters. Special scooping boats collected the litter. Various forms of trash mixed with mud and water around the edges. The place smelled. The people of Staten Island objected to the impact of the place on their lives; they eventually succeeded in closing the landfill. But, I found it all very interesting.
In 1990, the Municipal Art Society presented an exhibition titled Garbage Out Front: A New Era of Public Design. Mierle Laderman Ukeles imagined and curated the exhibition. I participated and so did the sculptor David Wells.
We knew one another from COLAB. David and I toured the Freshkills Landfill on a school bus organized alongside the exhibition. We walked the mounds and took pictures. The other people on the bus were all insurance inspectors.
In 1973, I moved into a loft on Chambers Street. The previous tenant, the Rose Chemical Company, was defunct. However things had ended, strange stuff was left behind for me to get rid of. Much of it was interesting or harmless but there was also a cardboard drum half full of DDT. Unable to find good solutions for some of those things, I eventually drove the leftovers to Staten Island. On a Saturday, anyone could dispose of "Household Bulk." Some people were there to leave things behind. Others found things.