How come we can't shoot garbage into space?

[Mrvile]

We can't afford it.

 

[waggy]

Originally posted by: mjuszczak

Originally posted by: Imyourzero

Originally posted by: RyanSengara
sure if you don't want to have space lanes..

way to go, instead of solving the source of the problem and contaminating the earth with garbage, when we run out of space we should just shoot it into space.

Why not? I mean, if the cost and other logistics could be made feasible, what's wrong with the idea? There's only, oh I dunno, an infinite amount of space out there to accommodate the garbage assuming we couldn't shoot it directly at the sun. I'd say it would take a lot longer to fill the universe with garbage than it will to fill Earth.

Seriously. If we had such a system set up, it shouldn't give people an excuse to be wasteful, but I don't think there is any way we'll ever get EVERYONE to recycle and/or do their part at reducing/eliminating waste. We're a long way off from the government *requiring* everyone to recycle and from every product being made with the foresight of being reusable.

It seems like the easy way out, but the fact is, garbage will continue to accumulate on this planet until we eventually run out of room for garbage, people, buildings, etc. If you can think of a way of "solving the source" that makes sense, I'm all for it.

So the consensus is that it IS possible with our current technology?

sure its possible. but it would cost so damn much it wouldnt be worth it.

 

[Born2bwire]

Today's landfill is tomorrow's oil field.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

1. Build Space Elevator
2. Use it to get garbage into space
3. ...
4. Profit

 

[PottedMeat]

Originally posted by: Born2bwire
Today's landfill is tomorrow's oil field.

heh yeah, why bother mining millions of tons of rock for a small amount of natural resources in the middle of nowhere when you can just mine a landfill full of material that wont take too much work to make ready to use.

 

[Toastedlightly]

shoot nuclear waste at the sun ftw

 

[Babbles]

NASA is aalready talking about how there is too much garbage orbiting the Earth and as such it would be pretty dumb to launch what can be potentially yet more orbiting garbage.

 

[Jeff7]

Possible? Sure. But we'd then have a problem with air pollution from all the launches.
And it's expensive. The lowest price I could find for launches today is around $1000 per pound. Your bill for trash collection would likely be more than your income.

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
1. Build Space Elevator
2. Use it to get garbage into space
3. ...
4. Profit

Even then it needs a rocket to get it out of Earth's gravity well.

 

[Laminator]

Originally posted by: Toastedlightly
shoot nuclear waste at the sun ftw

Now that's a bit more risky...

 

[Born2bwire]

Originally posted by: PottedMeat

Originally posted by: Born2bwire
Today's landfill is tomorrow's oil field.

heh yeah, why bother mining millions of tons of rock for a small amount of natural resources in the middle of nowhere when you can just mine a landfill full of material that wont take too much work to make ready to use.

Damn straight. Our rapant consumerism and insatiable consumption will help make the US of 150 million years from now the indisputed king of resources. We'll have all the precious metals, oil, gas, copper, iron. All those hippies that want us to recycle do not realize that some of us are actually thinking of the future when we decide to buy a new LCD TV every year.

 

[Toastedlightly]

Originally posted by: Laminator

Originally posted by: Toastedlightly
shoot nuclear waste at the sun ftw

Now that's a bit more risky...

once we get a feasible container which could survive an impact from 80 miles up, then do it. Best solution to the waste problem though.. that or shove it back into the earth (into a subversion zone)

 

[IGBT]

..ya I wana gather up all those discarded computers and monitors and old tv's and microwaves I see on the street corners and chuck em into space.

 

[txrandom]

Originally posted by: Born2bwire
Today's landfill is tomorrow's oil field.

Oil isn't renewable according to Rogo.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=38&threadid=2043356

 

[ppdes]

Watch, we do that and then that new plasma-arc gasification technology comes to fruition and all that trash would have been useful.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: Toastedlightly

Originally posted by: Laminator

Originally posted by: Toastedlightly
shoot nuclear waste at the sun ftw

Now that's a bit more risky...

once we get a feasible container which could survive an impact from 80 miles up, then do it. Best solution to the waste problem though.. that or shove it back into the earth (into a subversion zone)

Don't forget to send it to a breeder reactor first to extract as much energy as possible from it. THEN shoot it into the sun, and wait for people to complain about radioactive sunlight, and how we're going to blow up the sun.

 

[Born2bwire]

Originally posted by: txrandom

Originally posted by: Born2bwire
Today's landfill is tomorrow's oil field.

Oil isn't renewable according to Rogo.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=38&threadid=2043356

\me clicks link.

OW! Oh God... I think my eyes are bleeding. I REALLY wish we had an ignore button on this forum. Everytime I read a post by him I want to go out and burn a gallon of gas in his honor.

 

[ebaycj]

Originally posted by: tfinch2
I wish we could shoot you into space.

 

[FoBoT]

that is a recockulous idea

stop thinking

 

[patentman]

Originally posted by: mwmorph

Originally posted by: Astaroth33

How come we can't shoot garbage into space?

We can. We have the technology to do it... The problem is that it's just a wee bit cost-prohibitive.

that and delivery systems are only 98-99% reliable. Assuming our biggest boosters can carry something like 20tons into space, we'd have hundreds of flights a day to clear the earth of trash. Now say anywhere from 2-8 rockets would blow up a day splattering the earth's populace with human waste.

A literal sh!tstorm, if you will

 

[PingSpike]

Originally posted by: mwmorph

Originally posted by: Astaroth33

How come we can't shoot garbage into space?

We can. We have the technology to do it... The problem is that it's just a wee bit cost-prohibitive.

that and delivery systems are only 98-99% reliable. Assuming our biggest boosters can carry something like 20tons into space, we'd have hundreds of flights a day to clear the earth of trash. Now say anywhere from 2-8 rockets would blow up a day splattering the earth's populace with human waste.

Good idea. Lest spend trillions to splatter everyone with week old chicken bones.

To be fair, you could run the flights over the ocean so when that happened it would be unlikely to hit people. And since lots of crap gets dumped in the ocean anyway it'd still probably be a net plus for the ocean.

The real answer to this question has already been said...escaping earth's gravity is expensive.

The trash could be hurled by a giant railgun running off a nuclear power source to solve that problem though.

 

[jlbenedict]

My IQ just dropped by reading the OP's post..

ooh my