It’s time to think differently about garbage. The United States produces 390 billion pounds of garbage every year, and finding places to dispose of it is a serious environmental and economic challenge. We need to not only work toward producing less waste, but change the way we think about garbage. Instead of something that needs to be disposed of, what if it could be thought of something that could profitably be harvested?
The short film THE LANDFILL by Gary Hustwit and Jessica Edwards profiles a small county landfill in Upstate New York which uses a system of composting, recycling, and methane capture technology to operate sustainably while producing electricity for 5,000 homes in their area. By focusing on the people and ideas behind this innovative waste-to-energy initiative, THE LANDFILL shows the beauty and potential of the stuff we throw “away” (we all know by now there’s no “away,” right?).
Jessica Edwards is the award-winning director of Seltzer Works and Gary Hustwit is known worldwide for his design trilogy Helvetica, Objectified, and Urbanized. Starting tomorrow, you can buy a beautifully designed limited-edition box set of these three films. Out of the 1,000 copies produced most have been reserved for backers of Urbanized’s Kickstarter campaign, but 250 copies are still available to the public.
THE LANDFILL (watch above or click here)
DIRECTED BY – Jessica Edwards, Gary Hustwit
PRODUCED BY – David Scott
EDITED BY – Amir Husak
CINEMATOGRAPHY BY- Ben Wolf
MUSIC BY – Do Make Say Think “A Tender History in Rust” Courtesy of Constellation Records/Rough Trade Publishing
