Mobro 4000 Garbage Barge

In 1967, Islip, New York, like many cities in the US the space in local landfills had become scarce. To the United States it has become a symbol of a worsening waste-disposal crisis. To Lowell Harrelson, a building contractor from Alabama, it represented the realization of a dream, the first of many tons of trash that he planned to take from the New York area. His idea was to take tightly compacted and baled garbage, place it in small, environmentally controlled landfills and, within two years, begin to collect methane gas and money. He set out to find an environmentally appropriate site for a landfill. He thought he had found the perfect spot in Jones County, North Carolina. On March 20, 1987 Harrelson Loaded 3,100 tons (six million pounds) of commercial garbage from Islip, onto a barge. The Mobro left port on March 22, 1987. The day after the barge docked in Morehead City, N.C., several protesters arrived, bringing with them state environmental officials and reporters. They claimed that the barge contained rodents and hospital waste, people was worried about the toxic waste in the barge and North Carolina along with New Orleans rejected it. Other states such as: Alabama, Mississippi, Texas and Florida also rejected the barge for similar health issues. Mexico, Belize and The Bahamas rejected the barge due to environmental issues related to the toxic waste that the barge contained. The barge was rejected by 6 states and 3 countries. The latest hope was an offer by the Town of Islip to dump the garbage at its municipal landfill for $124,000. When it reached New York, two court orders blocked it from unloading. Before the people could take the Mobro’s load, a judge ordered that it all be burned in a Brooklyn incinerator. Five months after it set sail, the barge's cargo was incinerated in Brooklyn and buried back at the landfill where it had originated, in Islip. Nowadays, New York City now sends out the equivalent of seven Mobro barges every day, 50 Mobros every week, 2,600 Mobros a year. Today, methane captured at New York's biggest retired landfill generates $12 million in revenue a year.