Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- It's as tall as some of L.A.'s
highest skyscrapers, but the only residents here are rats and
cockroaches. Welcome to the Puente Hills Landfill, the largest
rubbish dump in America. Over 150 meters of garbage has risen
from the ground since the area became a designated dumping site
in 1957. Now, six days a week, an army of 1,500 trucks delivers
a heaving 12,000 tons of municipal solid waste from the homes
and offices of L.A. County's millions of inhabitants. "This used
to be a dairy farm; a valley filled with cows producing milk.
And now it's a geological feature made out of trash," said
Edward Humes, author of "Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with
Trash" -- a book that charts the history of garbage in America.
Humes says most of the waste arrives straight from the bins of
local residents. "If you're like most of us -- most Americans --
you're making seven pounds of trash a day. Across a lifetime
that adds up to 102 tons of trash per person," he said. In 2010
alone, Americans