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> It is amazing how much infrastructure and technology is in place for a process that is proving incompatible with reality (both in terms of capability of the t
by ced 7y ago
> It is amazing how much infrastructure and technology is in place for a process that is proving incompatible with reality (both in terms of capability of the tech, and economics of the commodities).
Is it incompatible? The article makes it sounds like a clear win for the city, and a sometimes-win for the plant:
All of this may mean that at any given moment, recycling can be anything from highly profitable to a struggle to cover costs. If we were to shut these facilities down during periods where they weren't profitable, however, we'd be wasting infrastructure and expertise we'd want when costs shift in the other direction.
The city does pay a tipping fee to get rid of the materials, but it's less than what it would pay to landfill them—plus it avoids the cost of transporting everything to the landfill.
The city even has a chance to get some of its tipping fee back. When recycled materials are sufficiently valuable, Sims shares a percentage of the profits back with the government. During periods where these materials are priced low, the company gets to keep any profits it can eke out.
The net result is that the city can benefit when recycled materials are valuable. And when raw material prices are low, it's still profitable to keep the facility operating.
- cdolan 7y agoThe article was written in 2015 when commodity prices were high, I doubt that the city mentioned in the article is seeing the same results today. I'd encourage you to read up on China's import ban and how that has effectively upended the US recycling system.
- jdietrich 7y agoNew York City is a massive outlier when it comes to waste disposal. They have no working landfill sites or incineration facilities, they have considerable political difficulties in exporting waste to New Jersey or New York State and their waste management system is still substantially dysfunctional due to the legacy of organised crime. As a result, they have the highest per-tonne landfill costs in North America. These problems could be fixed on a practical level with a handful of modern waste-to-energy plants, but that's politically untenable in the current climate.
- hinkley 7y agoI wish Supercritical Water Oxidation had worked out. But it requires ceramics that are resistant to heat, pressure, and chemical erosion, which turns out to be the usual 'pick two' situation. I had heard someone was working on composite ceramics to deal with this (heat and pressure resistant bulk, enameled with heat and chemical resistant coatings) but have heard nothing since. So far they only seem to be price competitive in hazardous waste situations.