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Modern cities create vast quantities of waste. But rather than causing a crisis, could these overflowinglandfills help create urban landscapes of the future? In the third of Building Tomorrow’s expert viewpoints,urban designer Mitchell Joachim looks at ways our trash can be turned into treasure.

Cities were invented for a multitude of purposes. First was the need for the concentration of vitalresources in a given region ­ then came their role as places for worship, trade, governmental controland military defence. But in our modern age, urban spaces were conceived and shaped primarily

By Mitchell Joachim28 May 2013

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around mass market industrialisation.

Today the consequences of the post­industrial city have had an incredible impact on the environment.It is widely accepted cities impinge on areas well beyond their borders. Waste streams in cities arethe leading factor in pollution of the areas outside their geo­political boundaries.

Urban waste must be reconfigured – our time has run out. Reports of garbage problems from Naplesin Italy to Beijing in China underscore the size of the problem. Landfills are filled and incineratorshave the potential to release poisons such as dioxin. We must have a new strategy towards refuse inurban places, one that includes the design of consumables in the first place. Many concepts existalready, but what are some of the most radical solutions to our wasteful ways?

Recently, the planet reached 400 parts per million of carbon in the atmosphere for the first timesince modern humans evolved. Reversing such wasteful habits will require tremendous effort, asminuscule changes will not alter this course. Humanity has reached its peak of one­wayconsumption.

Now is the time to design waste to regenerate our cities. What are the possibilities for urbanenvironments after our aged infrastructure is recalibrated? How might bigger cities and waste mix?One key idea is that waste is not recycled through infrastructural mechanisms but instead up­cycledin perpetuity.

All over the globe municipal waste is on the rise. In China, the amount of municipal solid wasteproduced is rising by 6% per year. It has kept pace with the rapid urbanization in China. Many parts of

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South America are also rapidly urbanising and their waste has grown with it. Brazilian cities have hada steady 10% increase in waste headed for landfills. India will see a 500% increase in e­waste –materials from cell phones, TVs, refrigerators – destined for urban landfills. A lot of it is imported fromdeveloped countries. South Africa and China will also have to deal with 400% more garbage fromforeign e­waste.

Mankind will have to solve our waste problem in cities. If we don’t, it’ll be the end of us. There are anumber of possible solutions, and some of them are already being adopted.

Super­sized waste

The first credible step is to reduce trash by considering the life cycle of objects we make. Things thatare designed for obsolescence should be outlawed. Additionally, products must be manufactured withthe intent to reuse, disassemble, take back or upcycle. For instance, instead of tossing out bottles wecould adapt them for use as planters, lighting fixtures, building wall elements.

Other cities have highly organised systems to solve these problems. In Zurich, the city requiresindividuals pay handsomely for waste that is simply discarded, while thorough recycling isencouraged by free citywide collection services. Therefore well over 90% of municipal waste insideZurich is recycled and sent to incinerators to produce energy. Burning waste is not the answerbut it does have opportunities in the mid­term. It requires substantial need for enforceable regulations,comprehensive industry controls, economic feasibility plans, and the latest ultra­expensive technologysuch as plasma gasification plants.

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In similarly developed cities ­ Malmo, Tokyo, or Copenhagen – it makes sense to use a waste­to­energy processes. These prevailing urban populations are stable and easily taxed to support such asystem – not so easy in developing cities such as Lagos or Jakarta.

Outreach programs that invite the public to observe civic waste systems as a spectacle areinstrumental in spreading awareness. The Hangzhou Environmental Group in China has over 10,000tourists a year visiting its landfill facility. Freshkills landfill in New York will be transformed into thelargest public park in over 100 years that will showcase engineered nature from waste. Cuba, anisland nation that has been cut­off from trade imports, has conserved almost everything throughcarful recycling of parts ­ from 1950’s cars to eyeglasses, nothing is wasted.

Look at how such a system might affect the US. America is the lead creator of waste on the earth,making approximately 30% of the world's trash and tossing out around three­quarters of a ton perUS citizen per year. It seems value has devolved into rampant waste production: mega­productsscaled for super­sized franchise brands, big­box retail, XXL jumbo paraphernalia and so on. The USmindset is typifying a throwaway consumer culture. Where does it all end up? Heather Rogers saidin her investigative book Gone Tomorrow that throwing things away is unsustainable. The first stepwe must take is reduction – meaning a massive discontinuation of objects designed forobsolescence. Then we need a radical reuse plan. Our waste crisis is immense. What is our call toaction?

New York City is currently disposing of nearly 33,000 tons of waste per day. Previously, most of thisdiscarded material ended up in Fresh Kills on Staten Island, before operations wereblocked. Manhattan’s inhabitants discard enough paper products to fill the Empire State Building

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every two weeks. Terreform ONE’s Rapid Re(f)use and Homeway projects strive to capture, reduceand redesign New York’s refuse infrastructure. The initiative imagines an extended city reconstitutedfrom its own junked materials. The concept remakes the city by using all the trash entombed in theFresh Kills landfill. Theoretically, the method should produce, at minimum, seven new ManhattanIslands. New York City’s premier landfill was started by the divisive urban planner Robert Moses anddriven by apathetic workers and machines. Now, guided by a prudent community with smartequipment, we must reshape it.

‘Smart trash’

How could this work? Outsized automated 3­D printers could be modified to rapidly process trash andto complete the task within decades. These potential automatons would be entirely based on existingtechniques commonly used in industrial waste compaction devices. To accomplish this job, nothingdrastically new needs to be invented. Most technologies are intended to be off­the­shelf. Instead ofmachines that crush objects into cubes, compaction devices could benefit from adjustable jaws thatwould craft simple shapes into smart ‘puzzle blocks’ for assembly. The blocks of waste material couldbe predetermined, using computational geometries, in order to fit domes, archways, lattices, windows,or whatever patterns would be needed. Different materials could serve specified purposes:transparent plastic for fenestration, organic compounds for temporary decomposable scaffolds,metals for primary structures and so on. Eventually, the future city would make no distinction betweenwaste and supply.

If you think this sounds familiar, it is. Think back to the 2008 Pixar animation WALL­E. Atapproximately the same time that Rapid R(e)fuse was initiated, the movie was announced. WALL­E’s

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name is an acronym: Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth Class. Left behind by mankind, he toils withtrillions of tons of non­recycled inner­city trash. He tirelessly configures mountains of discardedmaterial. Why pyramids of trash? WALL­E’s daily perpetual feats seem almost futile. The film omitsexactly why he is programmed to pile refuse; and there is the shortcoming.

There’s a deeper motivation for stacking refuse. What if the rubbish was refabricated to become realurban spaces or buildings? If it is plausible to adapt current machinery, how much material isavailable? At first sight, any sanitary landfill may be viewed as an ample supply of buildingmaterials. Heavy industrial technologies crush cars or to automatically sort out garbage are readilyavailable. 3­D printing has exhausting capabilities if adjusted to larger scales. This is where TerreformONE’s city began.

The envisioned city would be derived from trash; not ordinary trash, but ‘smart refuse’. A significantfactor of the city composed from smart refuse is ‘post­tuning’ – and we would have to adapt this rawmaterial for use. Integration into the city texture would be a learning process. In time, the responseswould eventually become more attuned to the needs of the urban dweller. This new city may be builtfrom trash, but it will also be connected via computers. The buildings blocks will learn.

Cities, unlike machines, are similar to a complex ecology. Ecology is capable of achieving acontinuous harmonious state, or even further, a positive intensification. If ecological models areproductively everlasting, urban models can logically follow.

For more in our Building Tomorrow series, click here. If you would like to comment on this story oranything else you have seen on Future, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter.

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Fit to burstThe effects of a disposable consumer culture have created a landfill timebomb across the world. Three billion extra people willadd further strain. (Copyright: AFP/Getty Images)

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Flexible metalsCurrently, waste metals are crushed into cubes, but in the future they could be cut into shapes which could then be used tobuild structures. (Copyright: Science Photo Library)

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Protecting the cityOne of Terreform ONE’s plans is to use parts of derelict ships to create a kind of buffer reef to help protect cities from the effectof storms. (Copyright: Terreform ONE)

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Re-use revolutionIn Cuba, trade embargoes have created a “make­do and mend” culture – an attitude the rest of the world will have to adopt inthe future. (Copyright: Emmanuel Huybrechts/Flickr)

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Bubble of opportunityMethane created by rotting rubbish could be used to power small power stations – creating another end use out of our citywaste. (Copyright: Science Photo Library)

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Electronic pollutionThe West exports some of its waste in the form of junked electronic equipment, which adds to landfill issues in developingcountries. (Copyright: Science Photo Library)

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Ever-growing mountainPaper will have to be recycled more to ease strain on landfills –New York throws out enough to fill the Empire State Buildingevery two weeks. (Copyright: Science Photo Library)

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