We pay for this stuff and it goes right into the waste bin, and we’re not capturing it the way our recycling programs are intending us to capture it. We’re just sticking it in the ground and building mountains out of it.

— About 69 % of our trash goes immediately into landfills. And most landfill trash is made up of containers and packaging – almost all of which should be recycled, says Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Edward Humes,

Edward Humes on Puente Hills, the largest municipal landfill in the United States: “The smell is not as impressive as the sheer scale of this place. It has 130 tons of garbage contained in this mountain. It is a high point in the south end of Los Angeles so you can see the entire basin of Los Angeles by standing on a mountain of its trash.” [full interview here]

Puente Hills Landfill (by wallofhair)