41. Martin Melosi — The Origins of Our Waste Crisis

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Waste is a massive global environmental and social justice problem—and it grows larger every year. Over the last century, while the human population has quadrupled, our global waste production has exploded at an even higher rate.

Waste is a major source of greenhouse gases, polluting our land, air, and water while destroying vital habitats. It is also a profound issue of environmental justice: wealthy nations produce the vast majority of global waste, often shipping it to poorer countries—with or without their consent.

Nowhere is this crisis more visible than in our obsession with plastic, which has grown nearly 230-fold since 1950. Without a dramatic systemic overhaul, the annual flow of plastic into our oceans is expected to triple in the next two decades.

Solving our waste crisis can feel like an impossible task. But it is simply too big to ignore. And to figure out where we are going, we first have to understand how we got here.

Martin Melosi is a historian who has spent decades investigating how our waste systems developed. His work focuses on urban environmental history, with seminal books like Garbage in the Cities, The Sanitary City, and Fresh Kills: A History of Consuming and Discarding in New York City. He is the Cullen Professor Emeritus and the Founding Director of the Center for Public History at the University of Houston.

For several years, I have been working with Marty on a documentary film about consumption and waste in New York City. We recorded this conversation at his home in Houston on November 8, 2025. We talk about the infamous Fresh Kills Landfill, the history of consumption and waste, and how historical perspective is a vital tool in tackling the waste crisis.

I’m John Fiege, and this is Chrysalis. You can subscribe at johnfiege.earth, where you will find show notes and all episodes of the podcast, plus my writing, photographs, and films.

Here is Martin Melosi.

Notes and Media Recommendations

• Martin Melosi: Faculty Profile at the University of Houston Department of History
  • https://www.uh.edu/class/history/faculty-and-staff/melosi_m/index.php
• The History of New York, Told Through Its Trash
  • https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-history-of-new-york-told-through-its-trash
• Martin V. Melosi: Fresh Kills: A History of Consuming and Discarding in New York City
  • https://cup.columbia.edu/book/fresh-kills/9780231189484/
• Martin V. Melosi: Garbage in the Cities: Refuse, Reform, and the Environment
  • https://upittpress.org/books/9780822958574/
• Martin V. Melosi: The Sanitary City: Environmental Services in Urban America from Colonial Times to the Present
  • https://upittpress.org/books/9780822959830/
• World waste: statistics by country and brief facts
  • https://www.developmentaid.org/news-stream/post/158158/world-waste-statistics-by-country
• The World has a Waste Problem. Here’s How to Fix It
  • https://www.ifc.org/en/blogs/2024/the-world-has-a-waste-problem#:~:text=Waste%20is%20responsible%20for%20a,up%20in%20dumpsites%20every%20day.
• The Pew Charitable Trusts and SYSTEMIQ: Breaking the Plastic Wave: Top Findings for Preventing Plastic Pollution
  • https://www.pew.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2020/07/23/breaking-the-plastic-wave-top-findings
• OECD: Global Plastics Outlook: Economic Drivers, Environmental Impacts and Policy Options
  • https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/global-plastics-outlook_de747aef-en.html
• Freshkills Park Alliance: The Transformation of the World's Largest Landfill into a Public Park
  • https://freshkillspark.org/
• Basel Action Network: Tracking the Global Trade of Toxic Waste and Plastic Pollution
  • https://www.ban.org/

Credits

This episode was edited by Sofia Chang. The podcast assistant is Domenica Klamm. Music is by Daniel Rodríguez Vivas. Mixing is by Morgan Honaker.