Fresh Kills

Estuary which, together with its arms Richmond Creek and Main Creek, extends into west-central Staten Island, New York City, from the Arthur Kill. Fresh Kills is the site of the world's largest refuse dump, a landfill for New York City waste four times the size of Central Park; by the early 1990s it had grown to a height of 61 m/200 ft, and attracted millions of birds to scavenge the refuse.

Fresh Kills was originally surrounded by swampy pine forest, and its waters were an abundant source of shellfish. In the 19th century, market gardening became an important activity here. Nowadays, the landfill site predominates; despite ongoing landscaping efforts and health safeguards, people living in the vicinity regularly file complaints about environmental pollution. Some residential and shopping areas adjoin the site, though most of the surrounding area is industrial. The manufacturing centre of Carteret, New Jersey, lies just across the Arthur Kill, while the area of Staten Island immediately north of the estuary's mouth is still known as Linoleumville, from a plant there that closed in the 1920s.