Incredible Tale of the Traveling Trash

The incredible story of incinerated trash ash loaded on a ship in Philadelphia for disposal in 1986, only to return to Florida for disposal after traveling the world for 14 years.

1 minute read

September 5, 2000, 6:00 AM PDT

By Abhijeet Chavan @http://twitter.com/legalaidtech

It was just regular household trash, incinerated in Philadelphia and loaded on a ship for disposal in 1986. That was the beginning of an incredible journey for 15,000 tons of ash as it traveled around the world in search of a final resting place. Now, 14 years later, some of that ash still waits off the coast of Florida."If everybody had to dispose of all their waste within a mile of their home, the incentive to reduce it would be far, far greater. If you could send it to themoon, you would have no reason to reduce it...[a]nd unfortunately, to some people, Haiti is like the moon."

Thanks to Abhijeet Chavan

FULL STORY: The trash that wouldn't be thrown away

Saturday, September 2, 2000 in The San Diego Union-Tribune

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