In the early 1970s, Virginia Beach compacted 640,000 tons of garbage into a 60-foot hill; the dump became America’s first landfill park and now spans 165 acres

In Virginia Beach, one of the city's most recognisable parks began with something most communities would rather hide: a mountain of garbage. According to the City of Virginia Beach, a 640,000-ton pile of garbage was converted into a 60-foot-high hill that became Mount Trashmore Park. What had once been a landfill was transformed into a 165-acre public space with lakes, trails, playgrounds and recreational facilities. The City of Virginia Beach describes Mount Trashmore as the nation's first landfill park. The unusual project began in the early 1970s and demonstrated how land associated with waste could be given an entirely different purpose. Today, visitors can climb the artificial mountain, walk around its lakes, use the park's trails and spend time in green spaces without necessarily realising that the landscape beneath them was once a landfill.

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