Nepal has Mount Everest, Tanzania has Mount Kilimanjaro, and New York City has towering piles of trash. For residents and tourists alike, it is a sight, and smell, for sore eyes. Garbage has come to define the metropolis, in ways pizza and bagel (prior to disposal) never can. Some throw the subway system into this, since the subterranean form of transportation has certain telltale signs of detritus. But what makes the garbage towers different is the spectacle. Restaurants and apartment buildings vying for sidewalk supremacy mount bag on bag.
The trash they are a-changin’. New rules will make these urban art installations a thing of the past. Like every other city, bins will make it harder for hardworking rats and pigeons to gnaw their way through the bags for a second helping of breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
The summer smell, such a part of the multi-sensory city experience, will be no more, enclosed by thick metal. Just because you hide something doesn’t mean it’s not there. When garbage is in your face, you can’t ignore it. Now, it’ll be easier to forget where that pizza ends up, and who gets to enjoy it next.
Garbage is just like you and me, in that it appreciates a little fresh air. We should all be worried.
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