murf n.— «The company wants to build a materials reclamation facility (a “murf,” in waste parlance) that would allow it to mechanically sort and process vast amounts of debris. Then Potomac would mine the landfill’s contents...
nurdle n.— «Ask a group of people to name an overwhelming global problem, and you’ll hear about climate change, the Middle East, or AIDS. No one, it is guaranteed, will cite the sloppy transport of nurdles as a concern. And yet nurdles...
castings n.pl.— «The worm’s waste materials, delicately referred to as “castings,” or, indelicately, as “poop,” are eaten by microbes and fungi, allowing them to grow and reproduce and sequester minerals from the soil...
turtle n.— «A sewer is a slippery workplace. Water can move at the speed of oncoming traffic, even when it is not laden with tree branches, two-by-fours and the waste products known in the business as “turtles.”» —“Working in the...
environmental racism n.— «There is what is called environmental racism where most of the hazardous waste dumps in the country are located in or near poor Black communities.» —“The Struggle for African American Freedom...
gravy plane n. a boondoggle, junket, or other (perceived) waste of money associated with air travel, benefitting a privileged group or person. Etymological Note: Frequently coined anew as a play on “gravy train,” a desirable situation or...