The Fresh Kills Story: From World's Largest Garbage Dump to a World-Class Park

For many years, all of New York City's garbage was brought to Fresh Kills. At over 2,200 acres, it grew to become the world's largest garbage dump. This 1-hour documentary reveals what Fresh Kills looked and smelled like, how it affected neighboring communities, the hurtful reputation it gave Staten Island, and the long and difficult battle to close it.
The property is now being transformed into a beautiful park, three times the size of New York's famed Central Park. You'll be taken on a cinematic tour of Fresh Kills, learning about the capping of garbage mounds and the environmental control systems in place, and showcasing plans for future park amenities, including both active and passive recreation, wind and solar power facilities, and new roadways.
Presented by Borough President James P. Molinaro
Documentary by Andy Levison, Staten Island Borough President's Office

[@harrybriscoe7948]

2,000 years from now it will be an archaeological treasure trove

[@larrygrant2396]

Yeah they're gonna be finding dildos and allsorts

[@laurac4128]

jajajajaja

[@austrorus]

if we have not blown up the whole place to smithereens before that.

[@Mikiwolf1]

Fresh kills is where the WTC was brought too. So it will definitely be a treasure trove for people 2000 years from now.

[@GARCIA67h]

Only takes 30 years

[@Brooklynlife1000]

When I lived in Great Kills, when that wind would blow a certain way, whew horrible!! I lived on S.I for two years in the 1990s and I said, stuff this, I moved back to Brooklyn. I love S.I though. It's very pretty and I have great memories there and was so glad to hear the dump was shut down and cleaned out, though I fear the cancer giving poisons that live beneath the surface. You can never fully erase decades of decay.

[@michaelcafaro4022]

They forgot to tell us that the leachate recovery system was not installed in 1985. If you do rough math that’s over forty years of leaking chemical runoff into neighboring waterways. That’s why the mercury levels of the waters surrounding the landfill are off the chart. I’m sure the system in place is far from perfect . I wish this wasn’t the case but it’s fact and it’s going to continue to pollute the area for decades to come. They want to plant trees and grasses and tell the community everything is safe. It just sucks because there are old pictures from the forties on the internet of garbage filling low woodlands and a once pristine fresh water pond called ebs being swallowed by a twenty foot wall of garbage. A total tragedy and a disrespect to mother nature. We better find a solution for solid waste quick because this is not going away anytime soon.

[@jamie.777]

Is that why now Yorkers talk that way and act like a$holes? 😂

[@Agui007]

Hi Michael, I'm glad you pointed that out as I have the feeling that a filtration system of solids and liquids is very expensive to deal with and, as well as placing methane pipes in, they'd rather bury the rest and conceal the truth by placing a superficial covering of grassland and trees on top whilst the problem remains underground.

[@MrRobKS]

I remember going to the Staten Island mall in the 80’s and waiting at the bus stop on a hot summer day and smelling that landfill. It’s truly great to see the beautiful park it is now

[@3.D.L]

@@GreatWhiteClips bruh 😅

[@CulturedWhiteBoy]

Just watching this makes the stench come back to my memory.

[@j.denino5732]

Mayor Ed Koch told Staten Island the dump would never be closed. Mayor Guiliani closed it forever. Thanks Mayor Guiliani.

[@dsewing02]

My father used to work on the docks at GATX (now Kinder Morgan) in Carteret, NJ. My hometown is right across the river from the dump. The smell from the dump was so bad at one of the docks at the place my dad worked that I would hold my breath when I walked down that dock to reach the office my dad was located at. My dad had no sense of smell left by the time he died in 2012.

[@gregkors8791]

I live in SI and it's got to be the more peaceful Borough. This park needs to come alive in the next 10 years let's make this happen people!!!!!

[@Fony_turgeson]

You must be another genius. To think that ot will be healthy?

[@awesomeconservative]

@@Fony_turgeson it will be

[@jwmalone84]

Convenient the timing of closing this dump so close to 9/11 and 9 months ahead of schedule. How many times you see something done by the government done ahead of time? Almost like they knew what was going to happen and they was preparing for it.

[@hippiebits2071]

Or more than likely just a coincidence.

[@jwmalone84]

@@hippiebits2071 again when have you ever known the government to have something done ahead of time?

[@jwmalone84]

@Joyce B so they was planning ahead

[@drumajo9598]

That's just what I thought too

[@calvingreene90]

I am never impressed with the complaints by people that moved into an area after the dump, airport, or industrial facility was already in place.

[@Fony_turgeson]

Its totally closed and now a green covered park. Its sick to think they assume it's healthy

[@IANinALTONA]

In 2019 i would love to see an update of this story! What happened since 2012?

[@SONGOKUMMA]

It's 2020 now, but they're still making it a park, but building has barely started still. They keep delaying the project, but there are a few very tiny spots open to the public for cycling/hikes and they do kayaking in the nasty polluted water. Aside from that, it just looks like a normal, empty gigantic field with trees and grass. Nature took it back. Though, the garbage, including the remains of the World Trade Center towers, are still buried beneath us, and the old dump burning pipes are still active sometimes, billowing smoke in the air of god knows what.

[@nickh9632]

Nothing, they are still shipping all their polluted shit to our state and pretending that they saved the world

[@tehtapemonkey]

Rest of the world: "So we have this landfill here..." New Yorkers: "Yeah. It's a dump."

[@Cicero1988]

I'd had a vague idea that Guy Molinari, in his capacity as Borough President, had something to do with closing the dump. But this documentary makes clear that his vision and determination were the driving force behind getting Fresh Kills closed when it did, and as fast as it did. I can distinctly remember needing to run with my family from the car to the entrance of the mall (all while holding our breath) just to try to avoid the worst of the smell from the landfill; in the summer, it was impossible to breathe around there at times. I can only imagine how awful it must've been for people who lived in the surrounding neighborhoods. Molinari did a great thing in closing Fresh Kills.

[@pingadol1555]

There's more Italians in this documentary than the Godfather movie.

[@DJRonnieG]

I just hope they open that road soon, I'm sick of having to go down the deep-end of Richmond avenue when riding my bike to the south shore.

[@jebj1]

I love people that move next to dump and then piss and moan about it.

[@acemt13]

I really enjoyed this. I grew up on Governor's Island, and honestly never knew it existed growing up! Thanks!!!

[@williammetcalf7239]

Very interesting story. Good to see a positive end to a huge mess. Govt and Industry really need to put forth major efforts in generating recyclable and compostable materials instead of endless trash generation. It can be done.

[@BananaPhoPhilly]

First get rid of plastic. But that’ll never happen

[@lauramurray6690]

​@@BananaPhoPhillyyes we have material that will break down in weeks in a landfill but it will never be used because nobody actually wants to solve the problem

[@Agui007]

@@lauramurray6690 They just bury it.

[@patriciatom9555]

Thank you for making this video. I lived in NYC from 1971 until the mid 1990s and Fresh Kills was a dump that I experienced from time to time but not often. I am seeing this in 2017 but I too got quite emotional seeing all the wonders of nature in Freshkills Park along with what can be achieved with engineering and cooperation of like minded individuals. I hope I have the opportunity to experience the park first hand sooner than later. On the actions of present day waste management, I wished Staten Island and everyone else would properly manage their waste instead of continuing to practice sending it elsewhere.

[@dsewing02]

My hometown is across the river from the landfill, and you could smell the garbage from one of the docks where my dad worked. I would always hold my breath when I walked down that dock when my mom brought my dad something when he was at work because the smell was so bad. And we used to be able to see the ShopRite from my hometown in Carteret, NJ before the mountain of garbage grew.

[@MichaelAMacomber]

Very good, no frills documentary. Demonstrates how government can do good when everyone works together for the common good.

[@samuelbutt8149]

Not to be cynical but I am wondering how many other places in the world can humanity destroy and then later call it a green space with a quick fix.

[@jaymorpheus11]

Only in America, you can get fined for throwing a peice of paper on the side of the road while multibillion dollar businesses shove this plastic down everybody's throats, not required or asked to update to biodegradable plastic. At a fast food joint you get plastic spoons, forks, sometimes while you hold a plastic spoon in your hands they give more (it's not their fault, it's nice to give free things... makes it seem impolite to refuse the plastic). Hardly any restaurants offer biodegradables.

[@newmexicorefuseentertainme9406]

I find it very disturbing that it took that long to close a Illegal garbage dump in 2001 many more regulations have been put in place for landfills fresh kills was definitely not up to code and it was allowed to keep operating even though it violated numerous laws very very disturbing

[@sethf2258]

Right NY officials seem corrupt af

[@lauramurray6690]

Well n.y is the hallmark of everything that is wrong with America soo

[@tehtapemonkey]

This was a very well made video

[@fyriskung]

This was a interesting movie about old Fresh Kills landfill!

[@Janotes]

The only answer to waste is not create it in the first place. Here we are almost 2021 recycling is failing, Buying on line is out of control, certain collection programs have ceased due to budget constraints. We have never gotten ahead of garbage and most likely never will.

[@jamie.777]

Thanks to moon bats like you 3rd world countries are melting e waste and creating toxic waste. You think 🤔 your so smart recycling, your moving it to 3rd world countries, and your recycled iPhone is giving children cancer in Ghanna. You have zero solutions, people ignore you moon bats

[@carolschoentube7627]

Born and raised in S. I. and left over 25 years ago. Would never go to that park. It's a toxic timebomb, and the Island is nothing but one big parking lot. Paradise lost.

[@pauliedoskoez]

This place is now used as the 9/11 Debris and Emergency Vehicle graveyard…

[@jerrycrock3701]

They all look like they're outta the cast of a mob movie.

[@mariekatherine5238]

They ARE the mob, not actors! Don’t you know who runs NYC, the sanitation dept. especially!

[@GrowGaia]

Thanks for this! Went to the Sneak Peak & I didn't realize it's only been 11 years since it was closed. I remember-- & not fondly-- having to scramble to roll up the windows when we drove past the dump, back when I was a kid & we didn't have power windows. I also remember flipping out on a woman from Alabama or some such place when I overheard her on the SI ferry telling her kid after he asked what was the mysterious island the boat was going to, "Oh, nobody lives there honey, it's just a dump."

[@crackernumber2]

i bet the mafia put a lot of guys in that dump

[@goiabexp]

*thats how mafia works* wow relevant meme

[@csn6234]

@383 chevy fuggedaboudit

[@frankesposito2182]

Do you know how many aborted Babies are there......

[@djwalby3878]

The mafia may well have, but the government & the criminals in this documentary did much worse. They used this landfill to bury most of the world trade centre evidence as well as the remaining little pieces of the victims. Now it's a protected site where any digging is strictly prohibited. I bet they chose this site because of its name, as an 'in' joke between those who know. Thats how twisted these people are.

[@chupacabra9357]

I read online that there are lots of human body parts in there that were never recovered after the 2001 attacks.

[@Agui007]

I might be wrong here but what really ought to have happened (which would have been far too expensive) would have been to get rid of what was buried deep inside, and sort it all out, from plastic to metal etc. All they have done is bury the problem and sugar coat it with a superficial answer and a green look. Always question officials with a MAJOR pinch of salt!! Here in the UK in my old city of Cardiff they have done a similar thing to Grangemoor park.

[@demolitionXloveX94]

Amazing documentary! So inspirational.

[@backboard13]

So everything is ok - just send you s-t to other states. So it’s ok to send your mess to someone’s else’s yard just not yours. NYC very classy as always.

[@AvocaSingleTrack]

This dump still exists in 2022. They just moved 90 miles west, to Scranton PA . Smell would knock a maggot off a gut truck !

[@fgjfdgjf]

Passed by it the other day looks good like a new place :)

[@tedarin]

So much wasted potential (hehe). The combustible waste could be incinerated in a Combined Heat and Power plant, making electricity and district heating. Biowaste could be sent to a fermentation plant making electricity/heat and even be upgraded to biogas that can be used to run buses/trucks/cars.

[@diannaskare7829]

oil , coal , nuclear cant have that !

[@CulturedWhiteBoy]

Driving from Queens to Jersey, I used to pass the dump by Starrett City and then this place. They both smelled just as bad.

[@MrOramato]

Who named it Fresh Kills, Costa Nostra ? If memory serves that was the Sicilian Mafia. Of Course the Jerusalem Mafia is still in business; some call it The Federal Reserve.

[@randytaylor8565]

in 1976, I was in the 7th grade and my social studies textbook had a picture of a mountain of garbage at fresh kills, and many years later in 2007 I LIVED IN STATEN ISLANDAFTER GETTING MARRIED TO MY WIFE, WHO AT THE TIME WORKED AT THE COLLEGE OF STATEN ISLAND, and even living on THE other side of the island . in princes bay, we could still smell it occasionally, but BESIDES THAT I ENJOYED LIVING THERE

[@diddlethepoodle4812]

Wonder how many missing people are in that dump. Smh

[@TheraP2014]

That fact that no nuclear power plants were allowed to be built there (and hopefully never will be), is one of the wisest and greatest gifts to mankind, wildlife and mother earth. Thank you.❤ P.S. Also, thank you Mayor Giuliani, Guy Molinari, Governor Pataki and all the men and women who worked for years to close the landfill down.

[@lauramurray6690]

That's the cleanest power we have. To power n.y city you will need more land then n.j in solar fields. Oh and FYI solar panels take 5 to 600 years to break down in a land fill because they are not recycled

[@TheraP2014]

​@@lauramurray6690 The nuclear industry claims that nuclear energy is cheap but it is only cheap if the cost of radiation exposure, irreversible environment contamination, nuclear accidents, nuclear testing, production (another horror story in itself), the cost of disposing of radioactive spent fuel that must be kept buried forever, is not included.

[@diddlethepoodle4812]

Run seagulls run!!! MINE, MINE! MINE, MINE MINE!

[@digitolwonder]

2:40 I was looking away from the screen and heard this part and SWORE Robert De Niro was in this video!

[@francescamigliori7922]

Just came across this video. It doesn't even mention Sen john marchi who drafted the bill to close the landfill

[@716racingchannel]

We got one here in Niagara Falls usa on the I-190

[@shanestevens523]

Everyone complains about land fills, but nobody wants to talk about how we can reduce all that trash

[@hippiebits2071]

Because people in this country have an aversion to anything that requires action/accountability on an individual level.

[@jamie.777]

​@@hippiebits2071speak for yourself and your family, sorry for you. My family works hard and "takes accountability". Your a hippie, you have greasy , unwashed hair and you reek of body odor and patchouli Maybe u hippies should bath 🛁 and take accountability 😂😂😂. D bag!!!!!

[@Steve-gr3bk]

As kids we used to call the flying plastic bags Wombats.

[@rwind3447]

This has explained a lot that I didn't know. I have shared it and hopefully we will recycle and waste last

[@craigpeeke6014]

Turn into a ski resort they did it in Mount Holly Michigan look it up

[@doninmichigan]

I skied there one winter and didn't smell a thing. 😅

[@gnuPirate]

I want to know where all the garbage went ? I assume all the same people still make all the same garbage. People won't tone it down with the garbage. Especially yanks. The same garbage is just somewhere else now, getting bigger. All these people have done is move the plastic , indisposable, non-degradable garbage somewhere else, maybe overseas, temporarily.

[@dc2acuracy]

+SixSixSix you must have been busy devil worshiping to notice the part where its compacted and loaded onto trains in the new facility and transported to the Carolinas for further sorting/recycling/decomposition.

[@ricvanwinkle1665]

EXACTLY OUT OF SIGHT OR SMELL OUT IF MIND

[@nataliyakhmil6693]

Omg I can't believe how much my home has changed

[@oscarenriquebonillamorales8748]

Great video , our initiative started with a short video I saw five years ago . Thank you

[@elsd1517]

Many bodies were dumped there.

[@rapman5363]

Geez, how many Molinaro’s served in the NYC political system. Everytime someone new came on the screen their name was Molinaro. Joe Molinaro Mary Molinaro Steve Molinaro Anthony Molinaro James Molinaro Paul Molinaro Debbie Molinaro Fred Molinaro Make Molinaro Gene Molinaro Carol Molinaro Edward Molinaro

[@duggydugg3937]

would be good to connect the Staten island railway to NJ and brooklyn

[@stephenmesser4196]

Question : does the trash still go to staten island before going on trains or does each section of new york have it's own loading station?

[@WHATISUTUBE]

so did they actually solve the problem or did they just dump the trash somrwhere else? Cause if its the latter they solved nothing.

[@NewYork2Havana]

Pardon my naive question - where did the garbage go?

[@dudelivestrong]

NewYork2Havana it all went to southern state landfills. They barge it down there

[@AD-hq2uz]

dudelivestrong those states take money to take the trash.

[@kevin-mehrenworth8400]

NewYork2Havana it decomposes to a certain point never lined all those cargenogenics from the poiesons from 911 so they did welch got that Masonic symbolisms the caduesus fuuckin Mason's need to all disappear

[@chupacabra9357]

It's still there, they just covered it up with a special sealant and then planted a bunch of grass and trees and other stuff like that.

[@lovefromabove]

The park has been nicely remodeled from the trash heap it was before. It would be nice if all our dumps and landfills could be made into something as beautiful and useful. Is it possible for a worldwide clean up project to take place?

[@ricvanwinkle1665]

Jedidiah Gurl yes a beautiful cancerous Park

[@cartman4885]

This a good video but when dumps and airports and sewer farms are built they out in the county then they build right up to it and complain and with Fresh Kills they didn't really solve anything they just moved it to someone else backyard what we really should be doing is burning all our garbage too produce power as we have the technology to clean the exhaust

[@kaz9781]

Never got the chance to see the dump in person, glad I didn't, it's not something to be proud of when your the largest landfill in the world

[@commenter6763]

If they're going to use rail for transport, transport it to the deserts where we know for sure wildlife and human life can't be supported due to lack of water, instead of the Carolinas where maybe those dump sites could be used for something in the future.

[@torballs]

3:50, the guy from American Beauty would love this place.

[@48censor]

wow. the garbage plastic bags

[@schlatter58]

Thanks for uploading this interesting video. Thumbs up!

[@torccchaser6712]

ANYONE who had ANYTHING to do with this DUMP should be in JAIL ! it ruined the neighborhood for MILES around !!!

[@coletanner5193]

Thank the Holy Father they passed that law in 96'. This thing stank so bad in the summer babies, kids, and adults would cough and gag when the temp hit over 80. No escaping it either, those poor mall workers were barfing behind the counter..I knew people that would plan trips in the summer according to temp just to avoid it.

[@ricvanwinkle1665]

Cole Tanner yeah who would think moving near a garbage dump would be bad

[@jumpers3]

I live in the Poconos and can't wait til the spring of 2014 to bring my family here

[@JDAbelRN]

Fascinating, Jim.

[@s37d]

nice inspirational documentary

[@offamychain]

The wind turbines will never work. The bird-watchers who will come to the park will complain those things kill too many sparrows.

[@texdoc5699]

Wind turbines don't kill birds no more than cars do at 75mph,They commit suicide, because they are going blind.

[@CMDRSweeper]

I guess Staten Island had their own version of the UK "Big stink" :D

[@dannyswing1967]

It took them 25 years to fix Staten Island Expressway and they still screwed that up 4 lanes to 3 then 1 mile back to 4 but nothing yet Politicians

[@davidjames666]

Too bad the garbage on Staten Island in 2017 are the heroin and drug dealers. Glad I left in 2004. Even back then, I was finding it a difficult place to live, and by moving, I also didn't have to deal with a flooded house during Sandy like the 2nd buyers of my old home had to. I think that Staten Island is sinking.

[@gregelliott5016]

Bet the park still looks great today

[@RobertoMattei77]

Unbelievable, give their headache to somebody's else

[@theleveractiongun7944]

now there garbage comes to chemung land fill in chemung county ny dont be fooled your garbage has been relocated thats all. tractor trailers run up nys route 17 all night 365 days a year

[@antt4592]

THELEVERACTION gun no shit what do you think it supposed to do just disappear? it's going to be sent somewhere use your brain McFly

[@stevegreen9460]

wounder if property prices went up a fair bit after it was landscaped. shows the impossible problem we have with rubbish in the world. crazy when u look at it.

[@denisestathatos4147]

can they install a methane digester so electricity can be produced?

[@wapartist]

Where did it all end up for real?

[@bobrusable]

yeh. but under the hill is trash that is decomposing and is going to break down and going to be unstable for tons of decades before you can even build anything on it.

[@Rodney348]

Actually, since there's no oxygen, moisture, or nitrogen from being so tightly compacted that even after 60 years even the ink on newspapers from then hasn't decomposed and the paper is still in good shape, and paper is one of the quicker of the decomposable materials. So the common thought of landfills being too unstable to build on is not entirely true, I just wouldn't build a skyscraper, but a typical 1-2 story building would show no settling issues even after 50+ years.

[@Rodney348]

Actually, since there's no oxygen, moisture, or nitrogen from being so tightly compacted that even after 60 years even the ink on newspapers from then hasn't decomposed and the paper is still in good shape, and paper is one of the quicker of the decomposable materials. So the common thought of landfills being too unstable to build on is not entirely true, I just wouldn't build a skyscraper, but a typical 1-2 story building would show no settling issues even after 50+ years.

[@TurboGSR96]

this is incorrect, i work in a landfill... much smaller than this shit hole and our tonnage is much lower. I guarantee you compaction at Kills is not as good as it should be given the flow in there. Also landfills settle my site is built on compacted subgrade and is lined and we get a few feet of settling, this place was built in a salt marsh with no liner, it will definitely settle a ton.

[@bobrusable]

I'm just saying I wouldn't build anything on it, to much of a risk of it settling.

[@antt4592]

Montage Nation it's s park so they're not going to be building

[@italianballbreaker]

Drove thru stinky island the other day and it stunk 💩

[@mauricecarter5831]

Awesome !!!!

[@paulabastias2170]

ALGUIEN SABE DE QUE AÑO ES ESTE DOCUMENTAL?

[@stickyhood]

the name of the park after him since he was the one that campaigned to get it closed

[@hawaii197]

Also how many mobsters are buried in there

[@Mikiwolf1]

The WTCs are buried there.

[@THEisaacG]

Cities: Skylines brought me here.

[@BlueBetaPro]

Impressive.

[@jamesvillegas877]

They all complain yet it's their trash.

[@j.denino5732]

james villegas No, it was the entire city's garbage. How the ph*CK is that fair? S.I. was the garbage dump for 8 million New Yorkers. It was a freaking nightmare. It was gross. It stunk to high heaven of toxic chemicals.

[@hometreasuresii]

The trash came from a lot more places than Staten Island.

[@angeleclarke9410]

Who is the man speaking at 18:05?

[@tarahjicheatham]

The Gromble: 😅

[@UmQasaann]

Aaahh!!! Real Monsters? Lo

[@JoshSorensen]

New Springville

[@cmakula]

How long before the trash gets in the water

[@TeslaThreeSixNine]

Its Feb 2016 and the roads are still closed and so is the park So Whats the deal ?

[@Fony_turgeson]

Its toxic dummy. What do u think

[@cleangreenearthforall9405]

Great video Andy! SUBBED! :)

[@circusboy90210]

now time to start sorting through that trash burning the things that can be safely burned , recycling what can be, and exporting the rest on trains .

[@chupacabra9357]

Why export it? Just leave it there.

[@bobbykaralfa]

burrogh in english called neighborhood

[@shirleykoskela6723]

All they did was Bury thedam dump