77 Items Tagged

Trash

Not good at all.

For Wildlife, Disposable PPE Is Far From Protective

It may take years—even decades—to fully understand the impact of disposable masks and gloves on the environment.

Jessica Leigh Hester October 2, 2020

The shore of Dead Horse Bay, photographed in 2015, is known for its trash.

New York's Favorite Trash-Strewn Beach Is a Wee Bit Radioactive

The National Park Service has closed a portion of Dead Horse Bay.

Jessica Leigh Hester August 20, 2020

10 Wondrous, Waterless Whales

From massive, still-oozing skeletons to a behemoth made of thousands of pounds of recycled plastic.

Jessica Leigh Hester August 19, 2020

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Museum of Material Failures

It may appear to be a fancy junk yard, but each item has a story to tell and a lesson to impart.

Grand, indeed, but also full of microplastics.

The West Is Being Won by Tiny Bits of Plastic

Natural landscapes are seeing huge amounts of microplastics tumbling from the sky.

Jessica Leigh Hester June 26, 2020

Video • Wonder From Home

Show & Tell With a Pull-Tab Archaeologist

Evans's haul was gently cleaned with water.

How a Tiny Island's Trash Heap Is Revealing Its History

An old dump beneath the airport on Michigan's Mackinac Island was brimming with stories from summers past.

Jessica Leigh Hester June 24, 2020

Richmond, California

TEPCO Beach

A porcelain company's former dumping ground, completely covered in pieces of collectible ceramics.

Plastics appear in water and on shorelines all over the world. Microplastics—shards less than five millimeters long—are even turning up in the cases that some aquatic larvae make to protect themselves.

These Bugs Armor Themselves in Tiny Shards of Colorful Trash

Caddisfly larvae are adapting to polluted waterways, but their recycling strategy has its drawbacks.

Jessica Leigh Hester May 13, 2020

Jobbe Wijnen, a contemporary archaeologist in the Netherlands, is a pull-tab connoisseur.

The Archaeology of Those Weird Metal Things That Open Your Soda Can

Meet the man building the world's biggest—and probably only—reference collection of pull tabs.

Jessica Leigh Hester March 17, 2020

Private businesses along Route 66 saw their share of littering.

Along the Remains of Route 66, Road Trip Trash Has Become Treasure

Welcome to the “throw zone.”

Jessica Leigh Hester November 15, 2019

The detailed masonry of prewar Liverpool is gradually being washed away.

Waterloo, England

Crosby Blitz Beach

Much of what constituted mid-century Liverpool now litters a beach outside of town.

New Smyrna Beach, Florida

Turtle Mound

Mariners once used this prehistoric landfill as a navigational landmark.

Historic trash in Joshua Tree National Park.

Sometimes Trash Is Treasured in America's National Parks

Bottles, cans, and more can reveal a long history of industry, recreation, and shenanigans.

Jessica Leigh Hester September 13, 2019

Las Cruces, New Mexico

Recycled Roadrunner Statue

The state bird of New Mexico, constructed entirely out of garbage.

The plastic-strewn sediment core was collected partway between Santa Barbara and the Channel Islands off the California coast.

More Than Half a Century of Microplastics Are Buried in Layers of Sediment, Like Synthetic Fossils

The teeny menaces turned up in a core taken from the floor of the Santa Barbara Basin.

Jessica Leigh Hester September 4, 2019

"Half Rabbit."

Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal

'Half Rabbit'

This giant sculpture made of trash is a critique of society's wastefulness.

The fatbergs, or "junkbergs," are often strewn with little bits of trash.

Fed Up With Fatbergs, an Australian Water Company Recorded a Jazzy Jingle About the Sewer

Only flush the “three Ps,” please.

Jessica Leigh Hester August 1, 2019