• Wake Residents Generate More Than Average Trash
  • ICYMI: Projects Funded Through Durham Participatory Budgeting
  • From the Archives: Drawing Out History’s True Colors
  • Read Up on Candidates Before Early Voting Ends
  • A Perfect Day in Raleigh
Credit: Photo by Chloe Courtney Bohl

Good morning, readers.

The average Wake County resident produces 5.3 pounds of trash per day. That’s 1,934.5 pounds per year, or 152,825 pounds in a (typical) lifetime.  

Some gets reused or recycled, but most of it ends up in the South Wake Landfill in Apex—which is where I found myself last week, hoping to learn a bit more about why we generate so much garbage and what happens after we discard it. 

The landfill is a sprawling, carefully engineered, mostly buried trash heap that oozes garbage juice and belches greenhouse gases 24/7. At the rate we’re generating waste, it’s going to be full in 20 years, maybe less.

And then what? Do we build another 180-acre trash mountain? Do we begin burning our waste like the Swedes? Read my landfill dispatch below, and have a good Tuesday.

—Chloe

Read the Full Story on INDYWeek.com

The latest from INDY, plus other stories around the state you’ll want to read. Handpicked every day by INDY Editor-in-Chief Sarah Willets.

Credit: Photo by Justin Laidlaw

Share the Wealth

Through participatory budgeting, downtown Durham will get a new skate park and a public restroom, INDY’s Justin Laidlaw reports.

Still Life

From the INDY archives: At Historic Stagville, artist Maya Freelon reimagines the lives of enslaved children, by Sarah Edwards.

Credit: Illustration by Nicole Pajor Moore

Get Out the Vote

Early voting for the March primary ends on Saturday. Read up on all of our election coverage as well as candidate questionnaires before you head to the polls.

LOCAL: Some businesses at Eastgate are still closed seven months after Tropical Storm Chantal, with a few set to reopen next month, Axios reports.

STATE: A new survey finds about a third of North Carolinians identify with Christian nationalism, NC Newsline reports.

EDUCATION: Meet the Duke lecturer who spends several hours a day responding to worried questions from first-year parents via Facebook, courtesy of The Chronicle.

Paid Advertisement

Love The INDY? Join the INDY Press Club.
Support the ambitions of local journalism (plus, enjoy a few perks).

Become a Member
  • Check out these images of Durham’s Bimbé Cultural Arts Festival in the 1970s.
  • On Saturday, the Chapel Hill Historical Society is holding a documentary screening and discussion on racial disparities in schools.
  • People on Reddit are talking about how they’d spend a perfect day in Raleigh.
Follow INDY Week on Social Media