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>> The scorching temperatures within Chiquita Canyon Landfill have caused pressure to build inside the 639-acre facility and forced contaminated water to burst

>> The scorching temperatures within Chiquita Canyon Landfill have caused pressure to build inside the 639-acre facility and forced contaminated water to burst onto the surface. I found that visual both gross and hilarious - in a tragic kind of way. It highlights how dumb some parts our modern world are. To think we can dump 7000 tons a day into a hole and figure that'll be just fine! And that's just one landfill... I don't have any solutions to offer, but just wow ;-)

mulmen 3y ago
Is that somehow dumber than thinking it will be fine to extract the corresponding 7000 tons of raw material?
FredPret 3y ago
7000 tons a day is a lot to a human, but it is just peanuts compared to the system it’s going into. In 100 years, almost all of it will be rotten or eaten or otherwise recycled.
- kibwen 3y ago
  In 100 years the thousands of plastic diapers that I used as a baby will still be carefully preserving my crap such that archaeologists a thousand years hence will be able to accurately assess the contents of baby food in the late 20th century. And that applies to basically everything wrapped in plastic, such as most every garbage bag.
  - mlyle 3y ago
    100 years is off by a bit, but most plastics have a life of 200-2000 years in a landfill. They'll break down. It's the extremely nonreactive but probably toxic chemicals like PFAS which are terrifying.
  - FredPret 3y ago
    What other grand predictions do you have for us about the future of microbe evolution? Also, we’re talking about a tiny quantity. A single square mile filled to one meter = 1600x1600 = 2.5 million tons assuming density of 1. That’s an entire year of 7000 tons a day. EDIT: that was snarkier than intended, my apologies.
    - kibwen 3y ago
      > What other grand predictions do you have for us about the future of microbe evolution? It took about 3 billion years for microbes to learn how to consume lignin. They'll learn to process plastic eventually, but without human intervention it won't be within the span of human civilization.
      - FredPret 3y ago
        Not a biologist, but the ability to digest plastic could be much easier to evolve at this point than digesting lignin was then. I read they’ve found microbes eating plastic already. [0] We’re also working on helping their evolution along. [1] [0] https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/plastic-eating-microbes-from-one-of-the-coldest-regions-on-earth-could-be-the-key-to-the-planets-waste-problem/ https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/plastic-eating-microbes-fro... [1] https://www.acs.org/pressroom/presspacs/2023/november/plastic-eating-bacteria-turn-waste-into-useful-starting-materials-for-other-products.html https://www.acs.org/pressroom/presspacs/2023/november/plasti...
  - gosub100 3y ago
    there is no shortage of landfill space. some how corporate america (waste management) got you to shill for them. this is why I don't recycle, if they want the stuff they can dig it out. brainwashing kids to recycle only bolsters their own profits, while taking away a revenue stream that poor/homeless used to enjoy.
    - FredPret 3y ago
      I am totally on board with the idea of recycling. But the reality is murky. Where does the stuff go, and does it get recycled? A couple of years ago, it was common practice to simply ship garbage to a third-world country (!) and have them deal with it - I'm totally 100% sure they scrupulously recycled every ounce. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada–Philippines_waste_dispute https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada–Philippines_waste_dispu...
      - gosub100 3y ago
        why do they need a second truck that guzzles about the same amount of diesel to transport them? I thought recycling was "good" for the env? at least the homeless people who collected them used public transport/green energy to transport them back to the recycler.
        mulmen 3y ago
        Efficiency? The garbage truck and the recycling truck both get full on their routes and probably have different destinations. They’re both going to cover some middle ground to reach their service areas, which could overlap but don’t have to be the same. In my neighborhood we have three different trucks. Garbage, recycling, and compost. The garbage and compost come weekly but recycling is every other week.
      - userbinator 3y ago
        With the exception of what left the earth and made it into space, everything we made will be recycled sooner or later, by nature or by humans.

mulmen 3y ago

Is that somehow dumber than thinking it will be fine to extract the corresponding 7000 tons of raw material?

FredPret 3y ago

7000 tons a day is a lot to a human, but it is just peanuts compared to the system it’s going into. In 100 years, almost all of it will be rotten or eaten or otherwise recycled.

kibwen 3y ago
In 100 years the thousands of plastic diapers that I used as a baby will still be carefully preserving my crap such that archaeologists a thousand years hence will be able to accurately assess the contents of baby food in the late 20th century. And that applies to basically everything wrapped in plastic, such as most every garbage bag.
- mlyle 3y ago
  100 years is off by a bit, but most plastics have a life of 200-2000 years in a landfill. They'll break down. It's the extremely nonreactive but probably toxic chemicals like PFAS which are terrifying.
- FredPret 3y ago
  What other grand predictions do you have for us about the future of microbe evolution? Also, we’re talking about a tiny quantity. A single square mile filled to one meter = 1600x1600 = 2.5 million tons assuming density of 1. That’s an entire year of 7000 tons a day. EDIT: that was snarkier than intended, my apologies.
  - kibwen 3y ago
    > What other grand predictions do you have for us about the future of microbe evolution? It took about 3 billion years for microbes to learn how to consume lignin. They'll learn to process plastic eventually, but without human intervention it won't be within the span of human civilization.
    - FredPret 3y ago
      Not a biologist, but the ability to digest plastic could be much easier to evolve at this point than digesting lignin was then. I read they’ve found microbes eating plastic already. [0] We’re also working on helping their evolution along. [1] [0] https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/plastic-eating-microbes-from-one-of-the-coldest-regions-on-earth-could-be-the-key-to-the-planets-waste-problem/ https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/plastic-eating-microbes-fro... [1] https://www.acs.org/pressroom/presspacs/2023/november/plastic-eating-bacteria-turn-waste-into-useful-starting-materials-for-other-products.html https://www.acs.org/pressroom/presspacs/2023/november/plasti...
- gosub100 3y ago
  there is no shortage of landfill space. some how corporate america (waste management) got you to shill for them. this is why I don't recycle, if they want the stuff they can dig it out. brainwashing kids to recycle only bolsters their own profits, while taking away a revenue stream that poor/homeless used to enjoy.
  - FredPret 3y ago
    I am totally on board with the idea of recycling. But the reality is murky. Where does the stuff go, and does it get recycled? A couple of years ago, it was common practice to simply ship garbage to a third-world country (!) and have them deal with it - I'm totally 100% sure they scrupulously recycled every ounce. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada–Philippines_waste_dispute https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada–Philippines_waste_dispu...
    - gosub100 3y ago
      why do they need a second truck that guzzles about the same amount of diesel to transport them? I thought recycling was "good" for the env? at least the homeless people who collected them used public transport/green energy to transport them back to the recycler.
      - mulmen 3y ago
        Efficiency? The garbage truck and the recycling truck both get full on their routes and probably have different destinations. They’re both going to cover some middle ground to reach their service areas, which could overlap but don’t have to be the same. In my neighborhood we have three different trucks. Garbage, recycling, and compost. The garbage and compost come weekly but recycling is every other week.
    - userbinator 3y ago
      With the exception of what left the earth and made it into space, everything we made will be recycled sooner or later, by nature or by humans.