Monday
01Jun2009
Why Is The USA Still Behind?
Mon, June 1, 2009 at 20:21
Or, Crazy Like A Fox?
As I continue my series, Recycling Isn't Green I thought we'd look at the future of recycling and how the landscape is set to change.
Forget global warming. Forget overfilled landfills. Forget The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Forget litter. Forget nature, birds and animals. Forget health, beauty, sanitation and every other reason you've ever been told recycling is necessary and think about the financial impact of recycling. Recycle because you're greedy and you want to keep your wallet fat.
"In Egypt, refuse collectors actually buy the right to collect trash since it is seen as such a profitable business. The collectors gather and recycle anything they can turn for a profit." -From The Global Face Of Recycling.
The day will soon be upon us when all forms of waste will be considered a means to turn a profit and not just something you dump on or in the ground. With waste to energy technology anything that is currently considered a throw away will become a commodity to be bought and sold. Garbage, plastics, sewage sludge, medical waste, hazardous materials, munitions, even spent nuclear waste will be bought and sold to the highest bidder who will then sell the energy that comes from converting waste. Did you know that in some places more compost is already being converted to energy that is being spread on farms. At least 99% of the compost my employer produces is currently being used to make energy. But if we are forced to dig these materials from the depths of landfills or collect them from our fields and streams we'll have to pay more for them.
When RecycleBill was a little boy it was said that some kinds of metals simply weren't worth hauling. There was a time when I charged people to remove junk cars from their property-- today I pay for junk cars.
Most folks considered scrap steel to be nothing but garbage. But a few miles down the road was a man who spent almost 30 years quietly filling over 20 acres of unused land with scrap steel while going to work every day at a low wage, dead end job. Eventually people began to notice the growing piles of scrap metal and started calling the field an eyesore but before local government managed to step in to condemn the property the man sold the entire field full of scrap metal and retired with several million dollars in cash. He was only 50 years old at the time of his retirement.
Call me crazy but I've little doubt that some crafty old business man somewhere out there is quietly filling his unrented warehouses with garbage to sell at some date in the future. In my hometown alone there are literally millions of square feet of empty warehouses. If I had a warehouse I'd do the same.
The first cities, counties and businesses who invest in these waste to energy technologies will be laughed at but time will prove them wise. As local landfills are closed and the rising cost of diesel fuel make the hauling of trash to distant landfills ever more expensive the communities that surround these early adopters will start paying the operators of waste to energy systems to take their waste. But as the rising energy demands of the rest of the world begin to catch-up to the West this increased demand for energy will invert the waste market causing the waste to energy producers to buy various kinds of waste based on how much energy a given type of waste can produce.
Suddenly the old man filling his unused warehouses with garbage seems not crazy but crazy like a fox.
So what will be the most valuable recyclables? Scrap metals will continue to lead the way as they are infinitely recyclable and of a finite quantity. Glass will eventually rise in price as it too is infinitely recyclable. Because their supply is finite, metals and glass are best converted into new metals and glass. Paper and plastics with their fewer life cycles and almost infinite supply will follow as both will be converted to fuel quite easily. As to were e-waste stands is anyone's guess. And while people might not like it, even sewage sludge will someday be bought and sold on the open market.
Waste to energy technology isn't some far fetched futuristic idea. Hundreds of companies and dozens of local governments world wide are already reaping profits from waste to energy technology-- why is the USA determined to be the last?
Continue reading Think Globally, Act Irrationally
As I continue my series, Recycling Isn't Green I thought we'd look at the future of recycling and how the landscape is set to change.
Forget global warming. Forget overfilled landfills. Forget The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Forget litter. Forget nature, birds and animals. Forget health, beauty, sanitation and every other reason you've ever been told recycling is necessary and think about the financial impact of recycling. Recycle because you're greedy and you want to keep your wallet fat.
"In Egypt, refuse collectors actually buy the right to collect trash since it is seen as such a profitable business. The collectors gather and recycle anything they can turn for a profit." -From The Global Face Of Recycling.
The day will soon be upon us when all forms of waste will be considered a means to turn a profit and not just something you dump on or in the ground. With waste to energy technology anything that is currently considered a throw away will become a commodity to be bought and sold. Garbage, plastics, sewage sludge, medical waste, hazardous materials, munitions, even spent nuclear waste will be bought and sold to the highest bidder who will then sell the energy that comes from converting waste. Did you know that in some places more compost is already being converted to energy that is being spread on farms. At least 99% of the compost my employer produces is currently being used to make energy. But if we are forced to dig these materials from the depths of landfills or collect them from our fields and streams we'll have to pay more for them.
When RecycleBill was a little boy it was said that some kinds of metals simply weren't worth hauling. There was a time when I charged people to remove junk cars from their property-- today I pay for junk cars.
Most folks considered scrap steel to be nothing but garbage. But a few miles down the road was a man who spent almost 30 years quietly filling over 20 acres of unused land with scrap steel while going to work every day at a low wage, dead end job. Eventually people began to notice the growing piles of scrap metal and started calling the field an eyesore but before local government managed to step in to condemn the property the man sold the entire field full of scrap metal and retired with several million dollars in cash. He was only 50 years old at the time of his retirement.
Call me crazy but I've little doubt that some crafty old business man somewhere out there is quietly filling his unrented warehouses with garbage to sell at some date in the future. In my hometown alone there are literally millions of square feet of empty warehouses. If I had a warehouse I'd do the same.
The first cities, counties and businesses who invest in these waste to energy technologies will be laughed at but time will prove them wise. As local landfills are closed and the rising cost of diesel fuel make the hauling of trash to distant landfills ever more expensive the communities that surround these early adopters will start paying the operators of waste to energy systems to take their waste. But as the rising energy demands of the rest of the world begin to catch-up to the West this increased demand for energy will invert the waste market causing the waste to energy producers to buy various kinds of waste based on how much energy a given type of waste can produce.
Suddenly the old man filling his unused warehouses with garbage seems not crazy but crazy like a fox.
So what will be the most valuable recyclables? Scrap metals will continue to lead the way as they are infinitely recyclable and of a finite quantity. Glass will eventually rise in price as it too is infinitely recyclable. Because their supply is finite, metals and glass are best converted into new metals and glass. Paper and plastics with their fewer life cycles and almost infinite supply will follow as both will be converted to fuel quite easily. As to were e-waste stands is anyone's guess. And while people might not like it, even sewage sludge will someday be bought and sold on the open market.
Waste to energy technology isn't some far fetched futuristic idea. Hundreds of companies and dozens of local governments world wide are already reaping profits from waste to energy technology-- why is the USA determined to be the last?
Continue reading Think Globally, Act Irrationally
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