In “Freshkills Park Project,” The City Concealed producers Bijan Rezvani and Daniel Ross go behind the scenes to document the changes at the world’s most notorious garbage dump. Although these changes might be good for Staten Island and the environment around Fresh Kills, where does all that trash go? Bijan Rezvani gives his take on what it was like to film atop of tons of garbage for this edition of Inside Thirteen.

1. Fresh Kills has long had a reputation for being awful — smelling awful and looking awful. What was it like filming on top of a former garbage dump?

From what I saw, this element is mostly gone. It’s now an attractive, watery landscape covered in grass. The methane release pipes and measuring devices that stick out of the ground stand as reminders of what it once was, and so it’s really the thought of the former landfill that makes the experience strange.

2. Other than covering heaps of trash with park land, are other improvements being planned for the Fresh Kills site?

Yeah, among the first areas to open will be a set of soccer fields, and following soon after is a bird observation deck. The Freshkills Park people have plans for biking trails, picnic tables, playgrounds, and everything else, and they’re working with various entities (including a community advisory group) to make use of the land in a way that serves the community.

3. So where does the city’s trash go now that Fresh Kills is closed?

It goes to other landfills in other states, Pennsylvania, one of the Carolinas… so basically the garbage is just hidden somewhere else.

4. The city seems to be employing an “out of sight, out of mind” approach to its trash — old garbage is being covered over by land, new garbage is being shipped away. What do you think about this approach?

I think it’s a problem. It’s impressive to see how they’re reclaiming land that was destroyed by a landfill, but the real problem, the tired cliché, is a culture that depends on the production of infinite waste. I think “out of sight, out of mind” relates to a lot of problems, really.

5. Do you think people will really want to visit a huge park built on garbage someday?

I do. The idea is strange, and that alone is enough to visit the place, just to see what it’s like. But what you’ll find is that it’s really just a pleasant, “natural” (surely with quotes) environment, and I think people in Staten Island (and the rest of the city) will enjoy the park.