The amount of trash we (Americans) produce is insane. I don’t get how it actually all gets disposed of. I live in a less populated area but when I see all the trash set out each week in my neighborhood, I feel like it would fill up an entire trash truck. There are tons of neighborhoods around ours that are even bigger. Where tf does all the trash go. My mind explodes when I think of massive cities like NY. I just feel like more trash gets produced than can be disposed of. This is one of the things that makes me believe we live in a simulation 😂
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For most places in the US it goes to a “dump” aka a landfill. That’s just a big well engineered hole that they put trash into. They can fit A LOT of trash there, generally several years worth. When it’s full they cover it over and start a new hole. Sometimes the trucks drop it at a transfer station instead of the dump. The transfer station puts it onto other vehicles like barges, or highway trucks for transport to a dump if the dump is far away.
We generate a lot of trash, but not nearly enough to worry about running out of landfill room, except in a few cases like NYC, where there is no large open undeveloped areas nearby to build a landfill
A lot of these places are open to the public if you want to drop off trash yourself. If you call ahead you can probably get a nerdy engineer to show you around.
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