4 ms·

Is your math right? 90 million tons of water/10 m gets me 1.7 km2, so a 1 sq mi landfill would last around ... 1 year, not 287. That said, of the 90 million of

by morsch 3y ago

Is your math right? 90 million tons of water/10 m gets me 1.7 km2, so a 1 sq mi landfill would last around ... 1 year, not 287. That said, of the 90 million of waste, 60-70 million is construction waste, and just 6 million tons is municipal waste. On the other hand, I'm not sure you can just assume that waste has the same density as water; from a cursory glance it seems to about 1/3. https://www.bafu.admin.ch/bafu/en/home/topics/waste/in-brief.html https://www.bafu.admin.ch/bafu/en/home/topics/waste/in-brief... https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=%28volume+of+90+million+metric+tons+of+water%29%2F10+meters https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=%28volume+of+90+million... (sorry I was all out of napkins)

fisherjeff 3y ago
Don’t think it’s even a year… should be 8-9e6 m^2 per year, or 3-3.5 mi^2 per year.
lgessler 3y ago
I think you're right. Here's my math: https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=%28%281+square+mile+*+10+meters%29+in+liters%29+%2F+%288e7+metric+tons+*+1+liter%2Fkg%29 https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=%28%281+square+mile+*+1...
lanna 3y ago
A mile is 1609m A sq mile is 1609x1609 = 2,588,881 square meters Times 10m, 25,888,810 cubic meters A cubic meter of water weighs 1000 Kg
gruez 3y ago
> Is your math right? 90 million tons of water/10 m gets me 1.7 km2, so a 1 sq mi landfill would last around ... 1 year, not 287. You're right, looks like I forgot to convert liters to tons. >On the other hand, I'm not sure you can just assume that waste has the same density as water; from a cursory glance it seems to about 1/3. is this before or after compaction? Intuitively speaking, most things I throw out would sink in water. A garbage bin/trash bag might float because it has a bunch of air, but presumably that will all get pushed out when buried 10 meters deep.
- user_named 3y ago
  Well you clearly don't have great intuition
  - sgregnt 3y ago
    Why is that, could you elabotate?

by morsch 3y ago

fisherjeff 3y ago

Don’t think it’s even a year… should be 8-9e6 m^2 per year, or 3-3.5 mi^2 per year.

lgessler 3y ago

I think you're right. Here's my math: https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=%28%281+square+mile+*+10+meters%29+in+liters%29+%2F+%288e7+metric+tons+*+1+liter%2Fkg%29 https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=%28%281+square+mile+*+1...

lanna 3y ago

A mile is 1609m A sq mile is 1609x1609 = 2,588,881 square meters Times 10m, 25,888,810 cubic meters A cubic meter of water weighs 1000 Kg

gruez 3y ago

> Is your math right? 90 million tons of water/10 m gets me 1.7 km2, so a 1 sq mi landfill would last around ... 1 year, not 287. You're right, looks like I forgot to convert liters to tons. >On the other hand, I'm not sure you can just assume that waste has the same density as water; from a cursory glance it seems to about 1/3. is this before or after compaction? Intuitively speaking, most things I throw out would sink in water. A garbage bin/trash bag might float because it has a bunch of air, but presumably that will all get pushed out when buried 10 meters deep.

user_named 3y ago
Well you clearly don't have great intuition
- sgregnt 3y ago
  Why is that, could you elabotate?