A Mob Boss, A Garbage Boat and Why We Recycle

Enlarge this image toggle caption George Argeroplos / Newsday LLC/Newsday via Getty Images George Argeroplos / Newsday LLC/Newsday via Getty Images

This is the first in a two-part series. Part two is here.

In the 1980s, the mafia controlled garbage in New York. So when an Alabama businessman named Lowell Harrelson wanted to turn trash into energy, he found a mob boss. Bought 3,186 tons of garbage, put it on a big ship, and set sail to find a landfill to work with.

After a 6,000 mile journey, The Garbage Barge, as it came to be known, resulted in an epic mess.

But it was also the birth of residential recycling in the U.S. as we know it.

Music: "Snakeweed" and "Rare Groove Revival."

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