A New Mexico teenage mother was sentenced Monday to a mandatory 18 years in prison for tossing her newborn son into a trash bin behind a shopping center, but a state district judge cited mental health concerns and the defendant’s age in suspending two years of the punishment. Jurors convicted Alexis Avila, 19, of child…

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif.—More than 11,000 pounds of trash were collected at more than 40 sites along Orange County beaches and channels and in parks in an event aimed at keeping debris out of the ocean. More than 2,500 volunteers took part in the cleanup coordinated by Orange County Coastkeeper as part of Saturday’s California Coastal…

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif.—More than 11,000 pounds of trash were collected at more than 40 sites along Orange County beaches and channels and in parks in an event aimed at keeping debris out of the ocean. More than 2,500 volunteers took part in the cleanup coordinated by Orange County Coastkeeper as part of Saturday’s California Coastal…

A college student who found an abandoned baby in a dumpster in Haiti took the infant into his care without hesitation, becoming his legal guardian as the authorities tried to make sense of the tragedy. Five years on, he has filed for adoption with the support of thousands of donors. Jimmy Amisial, 27, from Haiti,…

When a toxic landfill in Ohio was reassigned as a recreational greenspace in the ’70s, authorities had no idea just how massive the cleanup would be. From 1948 to 1980, the 47-acre Krejci dump had been a junk heap of old tires, garbage, noxious chemicals, and rusted cars. It would take over two decades to…

When an Indiana driver spotted a police officer clearing trash from the side of an intersection, it piqued his interest. Pulling over, he learned that the kind officer was maintaining the memorial site of a crash victim killed two decades prior. Touched by the selfless act, he filmed the interaction to share with others. Kaleb Hall, 32,…

It was a perfect summer evening in Indiana. Fishers police sergeant Rodriguez was in the neighborhood of The Bristols on July 29, when he spotted a couple of kids who seemed like they might be in trouble. Two boys were on the edge of a pond, and as an on-duty officer, Rodriguez’s concern was that…

Broken furniture. Flashlights with leaking batteries. Disfigured Barbie dolls. Across the country, thrift stores have been flooded by household items, the offerings of people who have been homebound for months and are eager to clear out some of their possessions. Problem is, too many such items could most accurately be described as trash. Many of…

Turkish garbage collectors have decided to salvage what was deemed trash by their clientele as treasure for the public, instead. Repurposing an old brick factory, bookshelves were set up inside and stacked full with discarded books, which had been destined for the incinerator before being collected from the trash. The library operates in the Çankaya…