One man鈥檚 garbage is another man鈥檚 gold. How New York City deals with waste has changed drastically. New methods in recycling have been extraordinary in transforming city life, while trash is also an amazing cultural archive.聽The City Reliquary鈥檚 new exhibition聽NYC Trash! Past, Present & Future聽explores the story behind New York City鈥檚 solid waster, and examines the ways in which residents of the city are reusing and recycling.
Waste management聽in New York has evolved for the better since the squalid conditions waste created in the city into during the 19th century as documented extensively by聽Jacob Riis. Soon after, landfills became the home of the cities garbage, filling聽Dead Horse Bay聽and聽Fresh Kills on Staten Island, sparking environmental concerns. The聽Department of Sanitation, founded in 1881, has worked to move the city鈥檚 waste away from the city, with more recent efforts that take into account trash鈥檚 environmental impact. While New Yorkers themselves are working harder to minimize their carbon footprint by reusing and recycling in inventive ways.
NYC Trash! Past, Present & Future聽explores that聽inventiveness by profiling seven artists and nonprofits in the ways they consider waste management both now and in the future. The exhibition also features a selection of objects that exemplify trash as a cultural archive from Nelson Molina鈥檚聽Treasures in the Trash Museum, a carefully curated assortment of oddities compiled Molina, a sanitation worker, over the course of 33 years on the job.
We may forget about our trash as soon as we put it out on the sidewalk in New York, but it all goes somewhere. As we鈥檝e seen, waste can have a detrimental affect on society if not dealt with properly. And from Molina鈥檚 Trash Museum, another man鈥檚 trash can become another man鈥檚 gold, making us think twice about what we throw out, question if it鈥檚 truly waste, and perhaps seek other methods of disposal that could be more beneficial to society.
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