“An estimated 133,000 computers are discarded by homes and businesses EVERYDAY!”
If you haven’t realized yet, I love finding out what happens to all of our trash we throw into trash cans.
By now, we all know that we need to recycle our electronics. In fact, there are signs all over NYC right now for an Electronic Recycling Event happening this weekend.
I just saw this article on NotCot via the NYTimes about how a company in Islandia, NY deals with all of our old hard drives and computer equipment.
The short of it is that it all gets shredded on a 60 ft. long conveyor belt and made into shreds, no longer than 4″ long.
“At the end of the shredding process, the e-scrap is shipped in 2,000-pound storage containers to a company in Canada where it is ground and pulverized into its very low-tech base components: small particles of copper, plastic, steel, silver, gold, platinum. This material is then sold to companies that use it in other products.”
This seems like a long way to travel, but I can only hope that they are doing their homework and this is the most efficient way to be handling these scraps.
I love the images: (courtesy of Maxine Hicks for the NY Times)
Thank you to the New York Times for getting the dirt on this!
I read Niki’s post about NYC’s recycling plan with interest, because trash and our methods of dealing with it have been in the forefront of my mind ever since I saw an amazing piece on Korean television about a Canadian company called Plasco Energy.
Plasco just may have got this whole “trash” thing figured out.
Using a technique called Plasma Gasification, they’ve devised a way to reduce landfill content by 99.9 percent. You heard that right: Ninety-nine point nine percent.
Here’s how their system works:
Municipal solid waste arrives at the Plasco facility where it is shredded. Recyclables are sifted and sorted out.
What’s left is run through past electric plasma torches in high heat, but almost zero oxygen. This results in decomposition, not combustion. So no smoke is produced, just usable gases. These gases are refined into fuel gas and used to power Plasco’s operation. Meaning, once the system is started, it is self-sustaining, needing only more trash to keep running.
Furthermore, the gases produced are also used to run a series of generators which create electric power. This power is then sold to the grid.
All material left over is then run past the plasma torches a second time, turning decomposed ash into a crystalline, glass-like material which is non-toxic, non-leaching, and can be used as roadbed aggregate, in construction materials, even polished and set to create jewelry. It looks a bit like obsidian, and personally, I think it would make some very cool black brick.
Any water that comes out of the process is perfectly clean and can be used for irrigation purposes.
So, just to recap:
Trash in. Recyclables, power, fuel, salt, sulfur, clean water, and black glass-like material out.
What’s left? .1 percent heavy metals from improperly disposed trash; things like batteries and paints.
And it gets better. Plasco’s operation, besides being self-sustaining and extremely productive, is very quiet, modular so it can be scaled to whatever size you need, and doesn’t stink up the neighborhood.
New York currently has to pay $90 per ton of trash in hauling and disposal fees. With a Plasco system in place, NY could be making $15 a ton.
Think what this technology means to the future of NYC. Instead of looking at trash as a problem, we realize that it is a huge asset.
Fresh Kills Landfill becomes Fresh Kills Mine. Plasma gasification quietly and efficiently turns countless tons of our trash into wonderful usable products like gas and electricity while making our city money!
How nice is that? A landfill is just a mine in reverse!
And you don’t even have to sort your trash anymore.
(Personally, I’ve never understood why the onus of dealing with municipal waste fell on the private citizen. Isn’t the whole point of a state and federal government to deal with that issue, among others? Isn’t the point of those institutions existing to let us live our lives happily, cleanly, and productively? Shouldn’t we be free of the worry that our trash is going to harm our environment?)
Really, what are you and I supposed to do with an aluminum can? A dirty diaper? Our take-out containers?
Plasma gasification, that’s what.
Waste = Food! Waste = Energy! Waste = $$$!
What do you think? Should we start a “polite declaration of intention” and ask Mayor Bloomberg to invite Plasco to set up shop in NYC?
It would eliminate 99.9 percent of my concerns about the future of NYC’s trash.
I was on the subway today when I saw these lovely trash cans.
I’ve heard rumors about all our trash being sorted and recycled, but is it true? Why not have separate bins? I did some digging and I thought I’d share what I found out. Apparently, all the trash goes to a place in NJ called All American Recycling in Jersey City. It gets sorted on conveyer belts and 25 people pick out the trash that can get recycled. 40% of the trash can actually be taken out and recycled! Which is about 7100 tons! That’s lots!
Click here to see an interview with a lady who followed the trash to the recycling center and explaining why separate bins wouldn’t help the situation (which is debatable).
The NY Times has a great piece today about Steve Feldman and Green Demolitions, his company that removes and recycles luxury kitchens and then sells them on for fractions of their original cost.
The homeowner gets a tax write-off, the buyer gets a beautiful kitchen for pennies on the dollar, and Green Demolitions gets paid AND donates the profits to an addiction recovery program here in NY.
SuperForesters are all over planet Earth, all united in exploring how to redefine "environmentalism" and "sustainability" to encompass every aspect of our lives.
Everything you find on this website has been personally created to uplift and inspire you.
Recent Comments