As the largest city in the world’s most wasteful country, New York generates more than 14 million tonnes of trash each year; reputedly (though possibly inaccurately) more than any other city in the world.

Not only that, New York is also America’s densest city: its narrow, traffic jammed streets make collecting all that garbage a logistical Gordian knot. And New York is located smack in the centre of the Northeast megalopolis, a giant urban expanse where available land for disposing of garbage is in short supply.