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I once talked to a guy who worked in a landfill for a county in Florida and I asked him his opinion of recycling. He said you can either recycle it now or recyc
by nashashmi 7y ago
I once talked to a guy who worked in a landfill for a county in Florida and I asked him his opinion of recycling. He said you can either recycle it now or recycle it later, or in other words, dig up a landfill and figure out what you can reuse. This is already being done in some places with very old landfills.
So he was not concerned about recycling at all.
- spullara 7y agoFor things that can be landfilled safely, I believe this is the best option. Technology for recycling will improve over time and demand for the materials will increase until it makes total sense to recycle it rather than forcing it now.
- nashashmi 7y agoSome items cannot be landfilled resourcefully, like metals. They need to be recycled now or they rust.
- benj111 7y agoDoes the recycling process not get rid of oxides? Aluminum oxidises quickly, and it's not as if many metals come out of the ground oxide free.
- maxerickson 7y agoEnergy has to get super cheap before it makes sense to process landfills just to clean them up, and that probably happens before they are an economically interesting source of materials.
- AnthonyMouse 7y agoWhat seems like it would make sense is to have landfills for specific materials. All the plastic in one place, all the food waste in another, etc. Then if someone comes up with a more effective method to recycle plastic, there it all is in one place, not mixed in with banana peels and old furniture.
- TylerE 7y agoThe banana peels will go away on their own pretty quick. Accurately sorting materials is one of the bigger problems in recycling right now.
- ken 7y agoDo we have reason to believe banana peels will decompose any quicker than lettuce, hot dogs, or guacamole, which were found to be "almost as good as new" after 25 years in the ground? https://www.nytimes.com/1992/08/13/nyregion/seeking-the-truth-in-refuse.html https://www.nytimes.com/1992/08/13/nyregion/seeking-the-trut...
- yoz-y 7y agoI think the idea would be that if we could actually sort out the food waste, it wouldn't have to be in a 'proper' landfill, rather it could be composted. In theory nothing will really decompose in a landfill because it is a big hermetic tin can by design.
- smileysteve 7y agoIf your landfill is sealed. I came upon the knowledge that many of the the US landfills are really just dumps.
- whenchamenia 7y agoUs landfills are highly regulated and sealed at multiple layers. Your 'knowledge' is incorrect. A cursory google would have enlightend you. But never miss a chance to take a dig at the USA.
- joshspankit 7y agoTbh, some part of me sees a not-too-distant future where companies harvest the garbage jires for profit.