<p> Brazil's gigantic trash dump on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, considered Latin America's largest, has finally closed.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The last truck to bring a load of trash to the open air landfill left Gramacho Sunday shortly before an official ceremony marking the closure of the dump.<br /><br />The dump will now begin undergoing a process of environmental recovery.<br /><br />The site, which covers 1.3 million sq meters, remains inundated with some 60 million tonnes of trash that practically buried a neighbouring mangrove swamp and contaminated the waters of Guanabara Bay.<br /><br />"We're putting an end to an environmental crime that for more than 30 years has polluted Rio de Janeiro," the mayor told EFE, symbolically placing a padlock on the dump's front gate.<br />"To replace it, we're building Latin America's most modern solid waste treatment center," he added, referring to the plant that had operated for several months at Seropedica, 75 kfrom the city.<br /><br />A good part of the 8,400 tonnes of solid waste generated each day in Rio was brought to the site and dumped in the open air.<br /><br />A part of it was consumed by scavenging birds and dug through by over 1,500 people who made their livings collecting recyclable materials from the trash.</p>
<p> Brazil's gigantic trash dump on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, considered Latin America's largest, has finally closed.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The last truck to bring a load of trash to the open air landfill left Gramacho Sunday shortly before an official ceremony marking the closure of the dump.<br /><br />The dump will now begin undergoing a process of environmental recovery.<br /><br />The site, which covers 1.3 million sq meters, remains inundated with some 60 million tonnes of trash that practically buried a neighbouring mangrove swamp and contaminated the waters of Guanabara Bay.<br /><br />"We're putting an end to an environmental crime that for more than 30 years has polluted Rio de Janeiro," the mayor told EFE, symbolically placing a padlock on the dump's front gate.<br />"To replace it, we're building Latin America's most modern solid waste treatment center," he added, referring to the plant that had operated for several months at Seropedica, 75 kfrom the city.<br /><br />A good part of the 8,400 tonnes of solid waste generated each day in Rio was brought to the site and dumped in the open air.<br /><br />A part of it was consumed by scavenging birds and dug through by over 1,500 people who made their livings collecting recyclable materials from the trash.</p>