2008 Woodie Awards
Giving new meaning to 'taking out the trash'
Andrew Sparks
Issue date: 9/21/06 Section: Commentary
- Page 1 of 1
Americans are known for doing everything bigger, and therefore in our opinion, better than everybody else. It comes as no surprise that we accumulate vast quantities of trash, and have to come up with even more ways to dispose of it. For example, St. Lucie County in Florida has drawn up plans for a $425 million facility which will utilize plasma-yes, plasma-to incinerate trash at temperatures hotter than the sun.
In a spectacular display of human ingenuity, man has developed an incineration process which will burn just about anything with purportedly miniscule impact on the environment. Byproducts of this plant will include slag (a.k.a. cinder, for us laypeople), which will be sold and used in construction projects, including roads. The slag will be made from about 600 tons of sludge from the local wastewater treatment plant, possibly creating 100-percent organic highways, to keep the environmentalists happy.
What's more, your morning orange juice will be processed with the help of 80,000 pounds of steam from the incineration plant, which will then be sold to a nearby Tropicana Products facility. However, the most lucrative aspect of this facility is the gas which will be synthesized from the incinerated waste. In existing landfills, the methane created from the garbage is burned to create electricity, but the plant will create even cleaner burning gas, and will also create enough electricity to sustain the incinerators while supplying the surplus to the public.
Although it sounds too good to be true, this technology currently is being utilized on a much smaller scale in Japan, with both facilities in that country sustaining very low emissions, even despite stringent standards. In fact, this type of pollution results from burning the gas to create electricity, whereas the incinerators themselves do not actually form emissions.
If this promising technology follows through with even half of its proposed results, the plasma facility will be a testament to modern man, albeit a foreboding one. To create electricity, steam, and construction material, the vast quantities of garbage involved must be taken into consideration. One of the most staggering statistics is that Americans tossed out 236 million tons of garbage in 2003, averaging 4.5 pounds per person each day. The St. Lucie landfill alone has collected 4.3 million tons of garbage throughout the past 28 years. The plans for the new plant will vaporize about 3,000 tons of garbage each day, which will clean out the landfill only after 18 years of 'round the clock incineration. But what exactly does the landfill store? Some reasonable guesses may be plastic products (which are made from fossil fuels), wadded up and un-recycled paper of all sorts, and perhaps clothing and furniture which could have been donated and put to continued use, but were not.
If someone wanted to easily see how wasteful the first world is, all they'd have to do is see what we throw out. There are so many things that we take for granted and just throw away. Sure, it's great that we're finding a good and promising use for our overflowing landfills, but an even better solution would be to take a proactive stance and consume less, buy less, make smarter purchases, and provide even a cursory consideration on what impact our daily habits have on the world around us. Once we figure that out, we can solve the real issue at hand.
Sources: AP, MSNBC.com
In a spectacular display of human ingenuity, man has developed an incineration process which will burn just about anything with purportedly miniscule impact on the environment. Byproducts of this plant will include slag (a.k.a. cinder, for us laypeople), which will be sold and used in construction projects, including roads. The slag will be made from about 600 tons of sludge from the local wastewater treatment plant, possibly creating 100-percent organic highways, to keep the environmentalists happy.
What's more, your morning orange juice will be processed with the help of 80,000 pounds of steam from the incineration plant, which will then be sold to a nearby Tropicana Products facility. However, the most lucrative aspect of this facility is the gas which will be synthesized from the incinerated waste. In existing landfills, the methane created from the garbage is burned to create electricity, but the plant will create even cleaner burning gas, and will also create enough electricity to sustain the incinerators while supplying the surplus to the public.
Although it sounds too good to be true, this technology currently is being utilized on a much smaller scale in Japan, with both facilities in that country sustaining very low emissions, even despite stringent standards. In fact, this type of pollution results from burning the gas to create electricity, whereas the incinerators themselves do not actually form emissions.
If this promising technology follows through with even half of its proposed results, the plasma facility will be a testament to modern man, albeit a foreboding one. To create electricity, steam, and construction material, the vast quantities of garbage involved must be taken into consideration. One of the most staggering statistics is that Americans tossed out 236 million tons of garbage in 2003, averaging 4.5 pounds per person each day. The St. Lucie landfill alone has collected 4.3 million tons of garbage throughout the past 28 years. The plans for the new plant will vaporize about 3,000 tons of garbage each day, which will clean out the landfill only after 18 years of 'round the clock incineration. But what exactly does the landfill store? Some reasonable guesses may be plastic products (which are made from fossil fuels), wadded up and un-recycled paper of all sorts, and perhaps clothing and furniture which could have been donated and put to continued use, but were not.
If someone wanted to easily see how wasteful the first world is, all they'd have to do is see what we throw out. There are so many things that we take for granted and just throw away. Sure, it's great that we're finding a good and promising use for our overflowing landfills, but an even better solution would be to take a proactive stance and consume less, buy less, make smarter purchases, and provide even a cursory consideration on what impact our daily habits have on the world around us. Once we figure that out, we can solve the real issue at hand.
Sources: AP, MSNBC.com