Tag: garbage barge-garbage-barge-recycling-works-beginning-waste-away group

We’ve all heard of recycling in one context or another, but not many of us really know what spurred on this environment saver.  On March 22, 1987, “it started when the Long Island town of Islip, overcome by its own refuse, shipped 3,168 tons of it down the Atlantic coast, with a plan to dump it in some farmers’ backyards. But North Carolina turned the barge away, as did Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas and Florida; Mexico and Belize sent out their militaries to keep the barge offshore. The barge returned and spent the summer stinking up New York Harbor.... Six months after its sorry tale began, the barge finally unloaded at a Brooklyn incinerator. The story turns uplifting only after it ends: the incessant news coverage helped inspire Americans to pay more attention to their trash, ushering in the recycling era.”*