The name comes from the landfill's location along the banks of the Fresh Kills estuary in western Staten Island.

[4] It consists of four mounds that range in height from 90 to about 225 feet (30 to about 70 m) and hold about 150 million short tons (140×10^6 t) of solid waste.

New York's municipal incinerators peaked in capacity with 21 plants in 1937 and declined during World War II when salvage and conservation programs reduced the use and discard of combustible materials.

[9] In 1946, New York City purchased a 2,200-acre (890 ha) site, which was considered worthless swampland in what was then a rural agricultural area in Staten Island, for a proposed three-year municipal waste dump, as a temporary solution to the closing of the Rikers Island Landfill.

I am going along with this proposal because I believe ... we are in a position to use this fill to our advantage, for the development of the West Shore of Staten Island, which is essential.".

[12] The talk of using Fresh Kills for only three years may have been a ploy to allow Hall to save face politically.

As described in an inter-departmental report from 1946: "Because of the substantial sums involved in the preparation and acquisition of the [Fresh Kills] site, [in order to justify this expense] the City must dispose of refuse at this location for a number of years.

At the end of the landfill's usable life, new real estate would be created, allowing it to top off at 10–15 feet (3–5 m) above sea level.

[9] The plan called for Fresh Kills to be used for 20 years, then developed as a multiuse area with residential, recreational, and industrial components.

Plant #2 was located a bit upstream on the north side of Fresh Kills near where Richmond Creek branches off.

A wooden trestle bridge was built across Fresh Kills Creek to expand the Plant 2 operating area.

One proposal for the West Shore Expressway bridge across Fresh Kills included a tide gate, which would have blocked Plant 2's marine access.

The native plant species were driven out by the common reed, a grass that grows abundantly in disturbed areas and can tolerate both fresh and brackish water.

[9] Samuel Kearing, who had served as sanitation commissioner under Mayor John V. Lindsay, remembered in 1970 his first visit to the Fresh Kills project: It had a certain nightmare quality.

I can still recall looking down on the operation from a control tower and thinking that Fresh Kills, like Jamaica Bay, had for thousands of years been a magnificent, teeming, literally life-enhancing tidal marsh.

[9]The environmental impact of the waste site was so significant that the base of the landfill was even discussed as the global starting point (GSSP) of the Anthropocene.

The area was declared a wild bird sanctuary, and some hawks, falcons, and owls were brought in.

From 1987 through 1988, in an environmental disaster known as the syringe tide, significant amounts of medical waste from the Fresh Kills landfill, including hypodermic syringes and raw garbage, washed up onto beaches on the Jersey Shore, in New York City, and on Long Island.

No reparations were paid to the business owners on the Jersey Shore for revenues lost during the months of inactivity.

[19] As a result of intense community pressure, a state law was passed in 1996 requiring that the landfill cease accepting solid waste by the end of 2001.

At its peak of operation in 1986–87, Fresh Kills received as much as 29,000 short tons (26,000 t) of trash per day.

At this height, it would have been taller than Todt Hill making it the highest point on the East Coast south of Mount Desert Island in Maine.

[7][20] Under local pressure from Staten Island Borough President Guy Molinari, and with the support of mayor Rudy Giuliani, New York state governor George Pataki,[9] and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the landfill site was finally closed on March 22, 2001, though it was temporarily reopened soon after for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in Manhattan (see below).

The garbage once destined for Fresh Kills was shipped to landfills in other states, primarily in Pennsylvania, but also in Virginia and Ohio.