How big is Fresh Kills, and how old is it?
The Fresh Kills Landfill began receiving waste in 1948. The original site encompassed almost 3,000 acres. Over the years, many of these properties have been relinquished for parks and other public uses. Since 1980, the site boundaries have constricted to encompass about 2,200 acres, with only 990 acres, or 45% of the site, used to bury and mound garbage. At 2,200 acres, the Fresh Kills site is roughly 2.5 times the size of Central Park and takes up approximately 8 percent of Staten Island’s land area.
