Dan Rather called it “the most watched load of garbage in the memory of man.”

It was 1987. A small town businessman had what seemed like a promising idea, to transport New York trash by barge to a landfill in North Carolina, where it would be converted into methane to heat homes.

And then the news media latched on to the story. Suddenly the transport of a 3,000-ton load of normal garbage became a tale of a toxic cargo set loose upon the open seas. For five months, news helicopters recorded the barge’s every move, as it was turned away by scared government officials in six states and three countries. “The Barge to No Where.” “The Gar-barge.”

In a new online video feature, “Retro Report,” we revisit the story, 25 years later, to discover that little of what we thought we knew was true. Environmentalists and government regulators explain that the Gar-barge was actually a smart idea that made business and ecological sense. Transporting waste long distances has become routine, with tens of thousands of tons leaving New York City transfer stations every day for landfills all over the East. Some countries in Europe can’t find enough garbage to burn in their energy plants, and officials in Norway are actually contemplating importing garbage all the way from America by — you can’t makes this stuff up — ocean-going ships.

This 12-minute video is the first in a weekly series that will re-examine the leading stories of decades past. The series is a collaboration between The Times and Retro Report, a documentary news organization formed last year.