–
It’s hard to imagine millions of tons of waste of all kinds under this green landscape. And yet, only a few years ago, the park FreshKills was indeed one of the largest landfills in the world. Close-up on this stunning metamorphosis.
Since 1948, Staten Island, south of Manhattan, was transported a multitude of debris, including that of the World Trade Center. With more than 890 hectares of land, the FreshKills absorbed nearly 29,000 tonnes of rubbish daily. A considerable figure which, obviously, had a harmful impact on the environment.
Some time after September 11, 2001, the landfill finally closed its doors to consider a completely different fate for this place previously synonymous with a dumping ground. Today, the site is undergoing a transformation. The goal? Make this place the new green lung of New York. To carry out this major mission, the work was entrusted to the company Field Operations.
View this post on Instagram
–
–
A gigantic metamorphosis
The start of the project officially started in 2008. Goats were imported as an ecological alternative, while dTrucks filled with soil were used to cover plastic sheeting which found on the rubbish heaps. But obviously, a few meters deep, thousands of tons of non-combustible waste continue to decompose.
But in the park FreshKills, Nothing is lost, everything is transformed. Thus, a pipeline and drainage network was designed to recover the gases. The goal ? Using methane to heat nearly 22,000 New York homes, as Ted Nabavi from the New York sanitation department explains to our colleagues in Curbed : « We are probably the only facility in the United States where the gas is purified and goes directly to consumers. There is nowhere a landfill that contains methane of this quality.This new green space is therefore preparing to become a model of sustainable development. Thus, renewable energies will have their place in this former landfill, such as geothermal, solar and wind energy.
Ultimately, that is to say by 2035, this large natural park, with an area three times the size of Central Park, will host a multitude of sports and cultural facilities: jogging tracks, performance halls, walking trails and even water points for canoeing. In addition, a memorial in honor of the victims of September 11 will be inaugurated.
Thanks to this beneficial transformation for the preservation of fauna and flora, the FreshKills now home to 200 different species of wildlife, including osprey, tree swallow, white-tailed deer, the northern snapping turtle or the American kestrel.
An excellent project which reconnects man with nature. For more information, go to here.
–
