Where Your Trash Actually Goes

Where does trash go after you throw it away? This episode follows where your trash actually goes—and what happens when “away” starts running out of room. See how a landfill works while it fills, closes, and keeps creating obligations long after it stops taking trash. Credits Los Reales Landfill, Tucson — Gene Spesard — CC BY 2.0 — cropped and color-graded Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/arizona_nati... Landfill gas pumping station, Tucson — Gene Spesard — CC BY 2.0 Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/arizona_nati... Geomembrane installation — W. W. Müller & F. Saathoff — CC BY 3.0 — cropped and color-graded Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ge... Monitoring borehole on a landfill — Des Blenkinsopp — CC BY-SA 2.0 — cropped and color-graded Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mo... Landfill gas collection (subsurface) and gas-processing plant — NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab — restored/upscaled from source renditions; gas-processing shot additionally color-graded. NASA does not endorse The Real Business.