We’re going to change the format of the RNS QotD up for a couple weeks.
Believe it or don’t, there is a group of what could be called “Free Market Environmentalists”. In fact, the Property and Environmental Research Center (aka: PERC) have actually crafted and taken that very accurate title as their own.
PERC has four very simple ideas, with which I’m sure you will agree:
1. Private property rights encourage stewardship of resources.
2. Government subsidies often degrade the environment.
3. Market incentives spur individuals to conserve resources and protect environmental quality.
4. Polluters should be liable for the harm they cause others.
One of the fellows, Daniel K. Benjamin has written an article titled “Eight Great Myths About Recycling” and we’ll be spending the next two Monday through Thursday sessions posting them up as QotD and then adding in what knowledge my time spent working in the recycling industry has given me below Benjamin’s quotes.
Everyone on the same page? Here we go:
Myth #1: Our garbage will bury us
Since the 1980s, people repeatedly have claimed that the United States faces a landfill crisis. Former Vice President Al Gore, for example, asserted we are “running out of ways to dispose of our waste in a manner that keeps it out of either sight or mind” (Gore 1992, 145).
This claim originated in the 1980s, when the waste disposal industry moved to using fewer but much larger landfills. The Environmental Protection Agency, the press, and other commentators focused on the falling number of landfills, rather than on their growing overall capacity, and concluded that we were running out of space. The EPA also underestimated the prospects for creating additional capacity.
In fact, the United States today has more landfill capacity than ever before. In 2001, the nation’s landfills could accommodate 18 years’ worth of rubbish, an amount 25 percent greater than a decade before. To be sure, there are a few places where capacity has shrunk. But the uneven distribution of available landfill space is no more important than is the uneven distribution of auto manufacturing: Trash is an interstate business, with 47 states exporting the stuff and 45 importing it. Indeed, the total land area needed to hold all of America’s garbage for the next century would be only about 10 miles square.
As to the point of the EPA underestimating “the prospects for creating additional capacity” was basically a government agency doing what government agencies do best: Scerw up. Possibly on purpose, since the EPA has been manned by eco-idiots since at least the Carter Administration.
As of the early 90’s the landfill industry began the widespread buying up of old pit-types mines to turn them into landfills. Think about it: A large hole in the ground nobody wants anything to do with would sell pretty damn cheap. They’re usually huge so it’ll take decades to fill the thing in. They also already have an infrastructure that will support large, heavy vehicles, going right up to the rim of the pit, as well as into it.
Since that time, numerous small-to-medium sized landfills have closed up and these “Super Landfills” have taken the place of those smaller, community based ones. Also, technology has advanced exponentially in regards to the actual usefulness of a landfill.
Nowadays, the items being dumped into a landfill are being given a boost in the ways they decompose. The enzymes which assist in the decomposition of landfill materials are being added to enable the breakdown of said trash. The decompsotion generates two things in abundance: Methane and CO2 gasses. Therefore, the landfill is plumbed so as to collect over 80% of these gases.
In prior decades, these were burned off or “flamed”, giving landfills an eerie glow at night. One that sits along Interstate 5 south of Seattle always seemed very strange to me as a kid, with the light from these flames shining over the hill that separated it from the interstate looking as though like some alien craft had landed there.
As of late, these gases are now being collected and plumbed to power generators which make heat and lights come on in their nearby townships.
Throwing your pizza box away is actually much better for the environment than sending it off to be recycled. But we’ll get into that in the near future, along with how you can get paid to throw your trash away.
I love those Methane burning engines. Matter o fact, I have a 90lb piston sitting in my basement from one, which now serves as an anvil/conversation piece. Where I work we can use methane and other “exotic gases” in combination with natural gas to power boilers for packing plants. You want to see high efficiency, check out an Iowa Beef Packers (IBP) plant some time. Cow patty’s, rendered fat and sewage power the whole plant. With a natural gas back-up.
My mom used to help run the power plant for Alyeska Pipeline Service Company’s Valdez Marine Terminal, and they used waste gasses from the tank farms, and from the Ballast Water Treatment Facility to run the power plant, and power the entire facility and sell power to the local power company…
And the Ballast Water Treatment Facility had to make the ballast water from the tankers so clean it was cleaner than the drinking water standards, and they dumped it into the bay…
Phil, you really need to see Penn and Teller’s Bullshit episode on recycling. I think you’d agree with it.
There’s no shortage of landfills! Here are 2 suggestions that I came up with in less than 30 seconds:
1) If we need large existing holes in the ground for landfills, we could use the Grand Canyon. You just need to plug the thing up at both ends – and that’s easy, just dump a bunch of concrete there and cover it with a few feet of dirt and plant grass. Viola, you’ve got landfill for the next couple of centuries.
2) Alternatively, the government could resume underground nuclear testing, but bury the bombs a bit less deeply. The resulting holes would be great for landfill. Better yet, locate them close to cities to reduce transportation costs.
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I’d like to see how many of the greenfreaks who, upon hearing/reading this, would need several rolls of duct tape to stop their heads from exploding.