Comments on: Above all that rubbish

By: golf irons

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 22:56:25 +0000

There’s nothing like watching millions of gallons of raw sewage flow into a lake during a heavy storm. Our infrastructure needs to be more environmentally friendly, and we all need to take some personal responsibility to protect this planet for future generations.

By: beemoh

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 22:36:23 +0000

Turns out they do it with mobile phones: http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/21237/page1/

By: Adam

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 09:27:27 +0000

mmm, panning for gold…

By: Ben

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 09:13:18 +0000

Well, actually, now that you mention it….

There is a mob in NZ that extract gold fro sewerage/sewage (not sure correct spelling, very different meanings).
Apparently the gold is suspended in the food we eat in minute amounts and it some how is extractable.
Not sure if they get much, but it is pretty shitty gold *boom tish*

By: Adam

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 08:57:13 +0000

I suppose a mid-air nuclear explosion is technically a solution to wate production though…

By: Adam

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 08:53:49 +0000

Oddly, ‘if’ works almost just as well.

This is always going to be a problem – the fine line between public and private responsibility, especailly as far as these sort of organisations go.

Until someone figures out a way to extract gold and diamonds from waste there is going to be too little money in it for it to be attractive to either side as a rule.

So, do your bit for recycling, scatter rare stones in your rubbish.

By: Adam

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 08:48:25 +0000

*just fiddling with the flux capacitor*

By: Adam

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 08:47:28 +0000

From what I gather this is possible to some extent, but is a cost issue, mainly it would cost more than extracting/making the materials in the first place.

The situation can and usually is improved by mechanical seperation prior to the recycling process. Magnets are a great and cheap way of removing iron-based materials, but we lack the methods to perform similar tasks with plastics.

That doesn’t mean that it can’t be done though, just that it can’t be done yet… I imagine bacteria will have a massive role to play in future processes, perhaps liquifying certain materials…

Your homework for the night is to sort this out… I expect a fully detailed solution by the morning…

By: Adam

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 08:43:56 +0000

I should probably start by saying that I’m sorry I haven’t been replying to many comments this last week… very busy… lack of keyboard… but I have been reading them.

So, I apologise for the torrent of comments some of you are going to get…

Anyway, a city-wide composting programme is a fantastic idea… we need one here, really.

The problem we have, especially in a lot of Northern towns is that we do not have gardens – many of us live in tiny terraced houses with little or no outdoor space. That means unless you are willing to compost in your house (or pocket mulch), you have no option but to throw away perfectly usable composting waste.

But our city-wide recycling is a joke. Since moving on to the programme, our local council (Lancaster) has just shirked all responsibility as far as waste management goes. Right now we have ankle-deep litter on most streets because they refuse to collect any rubbish not in the recycling boxes… which is all well and good, but then who is responsible? I can’t imagine anyone else walking around picking it up, and technically we all pay council tax for waste management…

Essentially local councils have used the ‘recycling buzz’ to make cut backs in how much they spend on refuse whilst reporting greater services.

By: Ben

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 00:46:58 +0000

That is a fair point Roo.

By: Davey

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 21:29:29 +0000

Alternately, many people would love to help, but they feel trapped, or unable. Especially in places where there is nobody to help or teach them better. It’s one thing to say “recycle!” it’s another to actually know how. In my case, it’s a 20 minute drive to a recycling bin an I don’t have a car to drive there regularly.

By: The Great Joe Bivins

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 16:07:10 +0000

Is it possible some of them are lying?

By: justine

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 15:25:41 +0000

it occurs to me that everyone you speak to is willing to do what they can, but somehow there are still so many people who dont do anything. where are they all hiding??

By: Davey

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 18:16:38 +0000

Then we start mining asteroids!! Seriously tho, I do hope we figure something better out first.

By: Roo

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 12:54:42 +0000

Even so… I’m with Adam. At the rate we consume things, if we start throwing all the rubbish into the sun, there will be very little left before too long. And as soon as we figure out how to use it, we’ll feel mighty silly for having thrown it away, permanently.

By: Davey

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 03:59:47 +0000

I was thinking more of this after we have a nice space elevator.

By: Ben

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 01:29:57 +0000

I’m not sure the tax paying public would be happy to pay $120K pa (based on lower average wages) to have some rubbish sorted.
The tax paying public is the type of person who will save a penny, but lose a dollar, or however that saying goes.
Like Terry Pratchett says, the collective IQ of a mob is inversely proportional to the size of the mob.

By: Roo

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 17:42:03 +0000

I think they’re not ‘homeless people’ once they start composting… I think they’re ‘corpses.’

By: Seraphine

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:13:46 +0000

no, those are just the homeless people, roo.

By: Seraphine

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:12:30 +0000

if people aren’t willing to change,
then technology has to provide the solution.
more biogradable materials, for instance.
more atomic bombs.

By: Roo

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:17:28 +0000

You know, San Francisco now has curb-side composting. Wild.

By: sitting pugs

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:12:17 +0000

Would it also be too expensive to hire three persons to go through recyclable goods and make sure those lids are all gone?

And anything else that shouldn’t be there?

By: Roo

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:28:20 +0000

Hellz yeah! I use wine bottles for that… more controlled flow for the house plants. (-:

By: Ben

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 08:33:11 +0000

The major problem with mass recycling is the high levels of impurities or contaminants that are often involved.
I have heard it said that a single lid left on one bottle amongst 1000 other bottles is enough to destroy that entire lot if it is melted and processed.

There are numerous things that we as individuals can do, and more that we can do at different levels of commumity, ie, neighbour hood, local, regional, state, federal and international.

An assignment I have to do for uni involves dealing with (as one choice of tasks) wastes from sanitation.
It will be interesting to see what we can come up with that will work in a third world situation.

The main problem with lauching waste into the sun is cost.
The second is the extremely high risk of a mid air disaster, resulting in a massive dispersal of contaminant over a wide region. This is a great reason for burying nuclear waste.
Oh, and rockets are polluting.

By: Chris

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 03:50:27 +0000

Eventually oil will get so expensive that it will cost to much to produce plastic packaging and then deliver them to the stores just so people can throw them away five minutes after getting home. Once that happens we should see some decent reduction in crap produced by humans.

Alternatively we’ll all just drown in a sea of rubbish.