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Eventually, robots will go through all of the landfills and recover a lot of the materials in it. And they might get all the energy they need to do it from the

Eventually, robots will go through all of the landfills and recover a lot of the materials in it. And they might get all the energy they need to do it from the garbage itself. Hey, if insects can do it, robots will eventually be able to do it.

blunte 7y ago
By then, there won't be any insects...
pedalpete 7y ago
Isn't this what Wall-E was all about?
- b_tterc_p 7y ago
  Nah Wall-E was solar powered and was just supposed to compact trash for incineration. https://pixar.fandom.com/wiki/WALL•E_(character) https://pixar.fandom.com/wiki/WALL•E_(character)
  - stretchwithme 7y ago
    There are a lot of elements in that story that don't quite make sense to me. Taking care of the best planet around is always going to be easier and better than packing everybody off to some other planet, even one that's just as good. They way I see it, it's even going to be possible to even collect all the mercury out of the ocean and clean up other seemingly impossible messes.
grive 7y ago
That's just magical thinking. Nothing suggests that it is in the realm of possibility. What is the energy potential in the materials in a landfill? How much is wasted by scouring them and trying to properly extract it? Compared to preventing the capture of those materials there in the first place? Putting the survival of our species on the possibility of some pixie dust is not rational. It is hard to face the truth, but burying your head in the sand is counter-productive.
- aeternus 7y ago
  It's not magical thinking, landfill mining has been in-use since the 1950s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landfill_mining https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landfill_mining If certain resources do get more sparse, it will easily become economically viable to expand landfill mining and we already have the technology required to do so. At the end of the day, it's an energy question more than anything. With cheap solar plus the fact that landfills produce their own free energy (methane) there is no need to be alarmist and consider them a threat to our species.

blunte 7y ago

By then, there won't be any insects...

pedalpete 7y ago

Isn't this what Wall-E was all about?

b_tterc_p 7y ago
Nah Wall-E was solar powered and was just supposed to compact trash for incineration. https://pixar.fandom.com/wiki/WALL•E_(character) https://pixar.fandom.com/wiki/WALL•E_(character)
- stretchwithme 7y ago
  There are a lot of elements in that story that don't quite make sense to me. Taking care of the best planet around is always going to be easier and better than packing everybody off to some other planet, even one that's just as good. They way I see it, it's even going to be possible to even collect all the mercury out of the ocean and clean up other seemingly impossible messes.

grive 7y ago

That's just magical thinking. Nothing suggests that it is in the realm of possibility. What is the energy potential in the materials in a landfill? How much is wasted by scouring them and trying to properly extract it? Compared to preventing the capture of those materials there in the first place? Putting the survival of our species on the possibility of some pixie dust is not rational. It is hard to face the truth, but burying your head in the sand is counter-productive.

aeternus 7y ago
It's not magical thinking, landfill mining has been in-use since the 1950s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landfill_mining https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landfill_mining If certain resources do get more sparse, it will easily become economically viable to expand landfill mining and we already have the technology required to do so. At the end of the day, it's an energy question more than anything. With cheap solar plus the fact that landfills produce their own free energy (methane) there is no need to be alarmist and consider them a threat to our species.