Lesson: Solid Waste 1
AIM:
How does NYC handle its garbage?
How can we prepare to handle the garbage of the future?
Do Now:
DSNY picks up about 12 thousand tons of garbage every day. How many tons of garbage are picked up by sanitation
in one year?
4,380 tons
Mini-Lesson:
Background info:
Solid waste dumping grounds are a characteristic of all human settlements. Archaeologists use old dumping grounds
as a "link to the past" through which they can learn about ancient civilizations.
The Industrial Revolution of the mid-19th century signaled a change from an agriculturally-based lifestyle to one based
on industry and technology. The resulting lifestyle changes have had an important effect on the composition and
amounts of solid waste produced.
ACTIVITY: 15 minutes with share
Tell students that they are archaeologists of the future, trying to learn about our civilization by studying the artifacts
and wastes we have left behind.
Have each group work together to produce a timeline describing the types of objects that could typically be found for
20-year intervals from 1900 to the year 2000- on attached student worksheet
For example:
1900-1920 wood furniture, glass bottles
1920-1940 farm tools, canning jars
1940-1960 manual typewriters, auto tires
1960-1980 aluminum cans, plastic bottles
1980-2000 videotapes, computer components
REFLECTION QUESTION: - 15 minutes with share
For each time interval, what conclusions could be drawn about lifestyles, eating habits, clothing, technology, and
impacts on the environment? Students should answer in their notebooks
Table 1- 1980-2000
Table 2- 1960-1980
Table 3- 1940-1960
Table 4- 1920-1940
Table 6- 1900-1920
 Point out the differences in materials used from one era to another, such as the introduction of plastics
and synthetic chemical compounds.

Discuss what inferences you might make about society during each time interval, based on the artifacts
that were found.
Materials such as nylon, plastic, and aluminum were unheard of or rare a century ago, when wastes were more likely
to be composed of paper, wood, and other biodegradable materials. Another difference that has occurred over the
past 100 years is the designed lifetime of products. Until the 20th century, possessions were treasured and handed
down to succeeding generations as family heirlooms. With the onset of mass production, many materials made today
are designed to last for a limited period of time as they are disposed of as garbage.
Let’s see what officials in New York City did with the garbage New Yorker’s produced over the years…
Trashopolis video with questions- 20 min
26:00-28:00- garbage as art
28:00- 32:15 garbage as infrastructure
38:30- end garbage in NYC today
Students will answer the following questions based on the video:
1. What institutional zones and infrastructure have been built on garbage?
List as many as you recognize
2.Which of the 5 boroughs holds Fresh Kills landfill?
SI
3. Where is NYC’s garbage shipped today?
Ohio, Penn, Virginia
4. What is the NYC’s current problem?
New York no longer has anywhere to put its trash
5. What artifacts have been found at the Brooklyn Bridge Park construction site?
Glass bottles, to be returned
6. How did New Yorkers recycle in the 19th and 20th century?
They returned bottles for refills
7. Brooklyn Bridge Park is not using garbage-based landfill. They are using CLEANFILL.
8. What is CLEANFILL made up of?
Instructions:
Answer the following questions based on the video Trashopolis: NYC
1.
2.
Infrastructure and institutional zones have been built using garbage. You might recognize some examples.
List as many as you recognize:
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____________________________________________
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____________________________________________
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____________________________________________
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____________________________________________
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Which of the 5 boroughs holds Fresh Kills landfill?
________________________________________________
3.
Where is NYC’s garbage shipped today?
4.
What is the NYC’s current waste problem?
5.
What artifacts have been found at the Brooklyn Bridge Park construction site?
6.
Make an inference!
How did New Yorker’s recycle during the 19th and 20th centuries based on the artifacts the archeologist found at
Brooklyn Bridge Park?
7.
Brooklyn Bridge Park is not using garbage-based landfill.
What are architects using to create a landscape with hills at the construction site?
8.
What items make up this type of landfill?
________________________________________________________________________________________________
9.
How is the new material different from garbage-based landfill?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________