Where does your trash go? Some of it can be recycled, organic matter can be composted and the rest goes to the landfill. Landfills have been the cheapest method of dealing with trash. But what happens when you start to run out of land?
According to a recent TIME.com article, trash is piling up in Britain’s landfills so fast that the country may run out of space within 9 years. Compounding the problem are new EU regulations that take effect in 2010 governing the amount of biodegradable materials in landfills. England’s new $16 million, 2.3MW gasification plant – the first in Britain and one of only a few in the world – will turn 30,000 tons of rubbish a year into electricity for 2,000 homes is due to start operating this summer. Read the full article: Britain to Burn Trash for Energy.
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Welcome to Verda Vivo. My name is Daryl Warner Laux.
Daryl,
Its important to note that gasification and burning are not synonyms. Burning trash released harmful toxins in the release of smoke. Gasifying trash breaks down the molecule, allowing the usable carbon to be extracted for other purposes (power generation, refining, etc), allowing the pollutant matter to be safely and easily captured for proper disposal.
Zack, You’re right on the mark. The title of the post is misleading – my error. Thanks for adding the clarification in your comment. ~ Daryl
I don’t remember how much stuff we throw can be either composted and recycled, but the amount is staggering I think.
To me, putting stuff into landfills is dreadful, and well burning rubbish… I don’t really like that solution either… even if its create energy to heat and light people.
One thing that might interest you : people here can’t go to landfills anymore (at least, here in my hometown it is the case ).
You go to a special place where you sort out your terminal waste ( the one that is not collected or can’t be recycled ) : like the big stuff, appliances…
So you put the green waste ( from gardening ) in one container, the metals in another, the old appliances in a third and so on. So the one that is buried away is really tiny, compared to the others.
This created jobs in our town for the jobless, the unskilled and so on. It is comforting to know that being green create jobs for people who have serious difficulty to reinsert themselves into society.
As I understand the process, the waste is gasified and the resulting syngas is burned. There are coal gasification plants here in the U.S. but using waste as a fuel is a twist.
It sounds like the recycling of garbage in your town is a win-win situation. We have to pay to have garbage hauled away or to take it to the dump. As a result, during walks, I have come across areas where people have made makeshifts dumps of their own and just dumped the garbage at the end of a road. I haven’t seen it often but once is enough. ~ Daryl
oO
Here, the garbage collecting is comprised of three shifts per week, including one exclusively for the recyclable stuff.
But, we live in the city center, so it isn’t difficult to do and there aren’t miles and miles to go.
Concerning the win-win : Lester Brown (founder of the Earth Policy Institute) refers sometimes to win-win-win situation as everybody profits and the Earth as well. I wrote a review of one his latest book :
http://www.elrst.com/2008/02/03/review-of-plan-b-20-by-lester-r-brown/
Enjoy !
Gasification can play a significant role in delivering a sustainable energy economy and is therefore one of the most technically and economically convincing energy possibilities for a carbon neutral economy.
Hey I wanna help you in this. I also love recycling. BTW, thanks for the pics…
good info here..
i’m from malaysia, which most people still not really serious about this ‘Green’ thing..
keep up the good work of sharing this kind of info..