Recycled Space: An Introduction

As I've begun to delve more into the history of the parks and green places I've visited or am considering visiting, I've found that many of these spaces I love were formerly something entirely different. The Minuteman Bikeway, for instance, is an example of a rail-to-trail or a section of abandoned railroad track that has been converted into a public path.

More surprising, however, is the number of parks I'm discovering to be former dumps. These beautiful playing fields, paths, and wildlife areas display a beautiful, complicated definition of recycling.

In the short report from The Trust for Public Land entitled "From Dumps to Destinations: The Conversion of Landfills to Parks", the authors present closed landfills as excellent new park sites due to their size, location and cost. Far from a new concept, landfills have been converted into parks at least as early as 1916 when Rainier Dump in Seattle underwent its transformation into Rainier Playfield. Converting a dump into a park, however, is a very expensive prospect, complicated by the gases released by they continually decomposing trash and also the trash continuing to settle after the dump's been closed for many years. The authors of this report suggest, "Even before the first truckful of garbage is disposed at a new site, careful consideration should be given by solid waste agencies, municipal park departments, and landscape architects to how the site will be converted at the end of its expected life as a dump."

It is wonderful to benefit directly from some of these converted dumps and fascinating to see the lengths we'll go to hide our waste!