Can burning coal and garbage really be 100% clean?

[Saint Nick]

I can already smell the butt hurt

 

[lxskllr]

I can already smell the butt hurt

That's the mercury. It can smell a bit like butthurt.

 

[Saint Nick]

That's the mercury. It can smell a bit like butthurt.

:thumbsup:

 

[SandEagle]

as long as nobody sees and you don't get caught, sounds clean to me.

 

[PowerYoga]

Problem is the technology is expensive. It's much cleaner and safer than dumping shit in a landfill.

 

[Bacstar]

Landfills generate methane which is often used to generate power, no sure at what efficiency.

Also landfills produce open land and step sided hills where I can fly my RC sailplanes

Just spoke to our engineer at the landfill I work at.

Currently, 90 acres of landfill is generating 1700 cubic feet of methane per minute, enough to run 4-electric generators for a total of 5.6 MW 24/7.

 

[KaOTiK]

Obviously we need to just ferry our trash into space and send it on a collision course with the sun.

 

[Anonemous]

Obviously we need to just ferry our trash into space and send it on a collision course with the sun.

Then what, have it come back to hit us again so we have to generate a bigger trash planet to collide with it?

 

[jagec]

Better than having landfills take over the free space!

The concept of shoving all your garbage in one place and leaving it there forever clearly isn't sustainable in the long term, but we have much, MUCH bigger problems than running out of landfill space in the short term.

Better to keep the problem contained in a relatively small, stable area than to throw it all in the ocean and have it be spread around the globe. Landfills comprise a fraction of a fraction of the space that we've "ruined" around the globe.

As for incineration, it can only be "100% clean" if you are capturing 100% of the waste stream. Let's just say that I would NOT want to pick up the resulting ash with my bare hands, or inhale deeply around the smokestacks. But assuming that they do a good job of capturing particulates, heavy metals etc. before they get out into the air, and that they dispose of the ash in a geologically stable area where it won't get into the groundwater, it certainly beats coal.

 

[TechBoyJK]

what's the likelihood of being able to go dig up a land fill and run everything through one of this trash burners to reclaim that land?

 

[lxskllr]

what's the likelihood of being able to go dig up a land fill and run everything through one of this trash burners to reclaim that land?

Probably close to zero. You're dealing with a huge hazmat site, that should be fairly well contained if built properly. Going in and disturbing it would likely cause more problems than it solves. A landfill can make a decent park at EOL, so it isn't completely a waste.