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NPR's Nina Totenberg reports on today's Supreme Court decision limiting the scope of the federal Clean Water Act. The court split along its familiar ideological lines, 5-4, in ruling that the Army Corps of Engineers can't use the law to forbid the building of a landfill in a migratory bird habitat. The area, near Chicago, contains abandoned gravel pits that flood with water and attract birds for nesting and breeding. The court majority ruled that Congress intended the Clean Water Act to apply to large or navigable bodies of water.

over Ellis Island... where some 16-million immigrants entered the U.S. The small island was signed over to New York in 1834, but the island was expanded with landfills into New Jersey waters. Now, New Jersey want a piece of the revenue generated by tourists visiting Ellis Island. Starting today, a special master appointed by the U.S. Supreme Court will hold hearings to resolve the dispute.

Kerry Donahue from member station WBGO in Newark, New Jersey reports on the latest garbage skirmish between New York and New Jersey. On Staten Island, the Fresh Kills landfill will be closed by the end of next year and is the world's largest dump. After the Fresh Kills closure, 13-thousand tons of New York City garbage will pass through New Jersey every day by rail. And some New Jersey residents aren't happy about it.

Americans generate more trash than anyone else on the planet: more than 7 pounds per person each day. Journalist Edward Humes explores how that happened in his new book Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash.

The engineer views a landfill as a living ecosystem, and the plastic that clogs it as a serious threat that crowds out life and never goes away. Can we eliminate the waste before it smothers us?

RetroBox, a fast-growing Ohio company, buys discarded computers that it recycles and rebuilds. The goal is to keep the machines out of landfills -- the U.S. government alone throws away 10,000 computers a week.

Six of the nation's largest school districts are ditching polystyrene lunch trays in favor of compostable plates. The hope is that they'll incentivize cities to build more composting facilities.

Deconstruction is a growing approach to taking down homes that diverts waste from landfills, cuts carbon emissions and creates a circular economy for construction materials.

A scientist estimating the weight of candy wrappers, bags, bottles, syringes and other plastic trash in the world's water sees a synthetic tsunami. Should China and India create more landfills?

Massachusetts companies that generate more than half a ton of food waste a week can no longer send it to landfills or incinerators. This has created a demand for "anaerobic digesters."