A high-volume transfer station, a model municipal soil bank, and a cutting-edge soil washer: Three area sites illustrate the values, costs, and benefits that shape the flow of recycled soil in and around the city.

The city’s construction projects don’t just rise skyward. They dig downward, displacing massive amounts of material whose journey in and out of the city few ever see.

From Freshkills Park's photographer-in-residence, portraits of another world in formation

Grassroots groups have kept organic waste collection alive in neighborhoods across New York City during a most difficult year. For community composters, the stakes of an equitable waste system stretch far beyond the pile.

The largest controlled building demolition in history, currently underway in Midtown Manhattan, puts front and center the ethical and environmental consequences of architecture’s disposable values. Could today's detritus be the building blocks of the future?

Following the trail of New York City’s municipal solid waste from curbside pickup to sites far beyond its borders, two artists document a system that benefits from low visibility as it dramatically extends the city’s footprint.

By way of natural disaster and human folly, a staggering amount of marine debris litters the waters and shores of an important estuary habitat. Meet the volunteers trying to salvage the situation.

Our inaugural Urban Wild Writer in Residence reports from the four mounds of the future Freshkills Park.

With New York City on the verge of reorganizing the private sanitation industry, union organizer Allan Henry connects the dots between street safety, worker rights, and environmental impacts.