When a sanitation worker hauls away your trash bin and dumps it in a truck, all that garbage seems to magically disappear—but, as many of us know, that’s simply not the case. Where does our trash and recycling go? Why do we produce so much of it? Has it always been this way?

Robin Nagle, author of the book Picking Up: On the Streets and Behind the Trucks with the Sanitation Workers of New York City, and Maggie Lee, Director of Cultural and Educational Programs at the Sanitation Foundation, hope to answer these questions and foster a dialogue about the origins of “throw-away” culture, the impacts it continues to have on New York City and our environment, and who should ultimately be held responsible.