rust belts
Former manufacturing heartlands
Rust belts are regions where heavy industry has declined, leaving abandoned factories and economic hardship.
The original Rust Belt spans the American Midwest and Northeast, where steel mills and auto plants once thrived.
The term now applies to any area marked by industrial decay: Europe has its own rust belts.
The rust refers to corroding machinery in shuttered plants.
- millsFactories or grinders
- brownfieldsPolluted ex-industrial land
- steelworksIndustrial metal production facility
- steel townMetal-producing municipality
- blue-collarManual labor workforce
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