This is so cool. Read on folks.

It’s not every day you see a series of photos clearly documenting someone with a front end loader pushing industrial waste directly into the ocean without any care of secrecy or stealth. Photographer Stephen Mallon captured this series of pictures over three years to document the unusual methods that New York City uses to dispose of its subway cars, but before you jump to conclusions, be sure to scroll all the way to the bottom, because this dumping has a secret purpose!
They use construction equipment to push the subway cars over the edge, splashing into the waters…


Here’s what it looks like after 5 years…

Here is what it looks like ten years later

The process of creating artificial reefs has been a great help to restoring areas damaged by human activity. Engineers have even sunk an entire aircraft carrier to turn it into a reef ecosystem. In an ideal world, we wouldn’t have damaged the ocean floor in the first place, but steps like this can help to repair the destruction.

At first, Stephen Mallon‘s photos tend to lead viewers to jump to the conclusion that this is a terrible act of pollution, but the truth is something much more beautiful. This tension and discomfort is what makes his work so powerful.