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Until someone creates a machine that can pulverise anything into a fine powder and progressively sort each granule into their constituent metal, plastic, silica
by sjwright 7y ago
Until someone creates a machine that can pulverise anything into a fine powder and progressively sort each granule into their constituent metal, plastic, silica and organic type.
- maxerickson 7y agoYou use that machine on better ore.
- tclancy 7y agoOr recyclables.
- maxerickson 7y agoThere are places that run their entire waste stream through a recovery plant: http://waste-technology.co.uk/what-is-a-dirty-mrf-and-why-they-are-being-phased-out-throughout-the-eu.html http://waste-technology.co.uk/what-is-a-dirty-mrf-and-why-th... A substantial portion of the waste stream is just organic material (which is worth very little).
- sjwright 7y agoUse it on landfill and you get to mine many desirable materials in one place.
- garmaine 7y agoThat doesn’t make chemical sense. There is a huge energetic cost to smelting ore to remove the oxides, vs. landfill material that is exactly what you need but just needs to be sorted and cleaned.
- maxerickson 7y agoThe concentrations of valuable materials in the landfill are minuscule. It doesn't make energy sense to sort it even though the fractions are relatively ready to use.