Fresh Kills Landfill Transformation

• The city of New York closed its largest landfill, Fresh Kills, in 2001.
• The landfill is being transformed into a state-of-the-art eco-park, and will open in phases over the next 30 years.
• The landfill produces enough methane gas each day to heat 30,000 homes, and will quite likely continue to do so for the next 10 years.
• The garbage stored at Fresh Kills falls into the category of “municipal solid waste.”
• It contains both organic material, like food waste and paper products, and inorganic material, like plastics and electronics.
• As the organic material breaks down over time, anaerobic micro-organisms helping the process along create what is known as landfill gas: about half methane and half carbon dioxide, along with a small amount of water vapor.
• The city processes the landfill gas on site at the Landfill Gas Purification Plant, and then sells the resulting four million cubic feet of refined, “pipeline-quality” gas to the local utility, National Grid, for distribution to residential and commercial customers throughout Staten Island.

Learn about the transformation of New York City's largest landfill, Fresh Kills, into a state-of-the-art eco-park. Discover how the landfill gas produced is processed and utilized for residential and commercial purposes, and explore the different types of waste stored at the landfill.