A sprawling ziggurat stuffed with 130 million tons of trash cuts into the hills above East Los Angeles, towering over the city like a monument to American excess. The Puente Hills Landfill hasn’t accepted new waste in nearly a decade, but it remains the largest dump in America and a significant producer of greenhouse gases. Every minute, Puente Hills releases 30,000 cubic feet of landfill gas, a noxious mixture of carbon dioxide and methane created by microbes devouring the dump’s organic matter.
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