If 50% of the trash that is dumped in landfills can be processed into oil why not process the trash ?

Question

There is a mindset that maintains dumping trash in landfills is less costly than processing trash into raw material. There is no data indicating the cost of processing in more than the cost of dumping. What if environmental concerns are factored into this? Landfills polute for hundreds of years while processing reduces polution for several reasons. So, from an environmental perspective the processing of trash is much the better method. It is clear landfills are of no value to anyone and should be replaced by a process that transforms trash into useful raw material. Why not develop a process and stop the mindless landfill? Its really a rather simple process afterall.

Answer 1

Only certain materials can be processed. So to process trash in landfills, you'd need all these people to pick through the trash to find what's suitable. Add onto the cost of hiring these people, the cost of training them. An average Joe can't say "Oh, look; this is derived from x, so it can be processed into oil!" For that same reason, you can't have people put things into a "proccessable into oil" bin like people put things into a "recylcable bin".

Furthermore, the process is not simple. In order to process something into oil, you have to break molecular bonds - ionic and covalent. To break covalent bonds you need a few hundred degrees Celsius for most compounds. To break ionic bonds need an even larger amount of heat. Also required to turn something into oil is a huge amount of pressure. High pressure will decrease temperature, so you'll need even more heat energy. Then, to process the crude oil, you'll need an oil refinery. The energy needed for the heat and pressure itself would be more than the oil produced.

Answer 2

I think that the premise of the question is false. It assumes that anything can be transformed into a petroleum product which is not true. Petroleum products (such as plastic) can be recovered from petroleum products, but you can't recover oil from a piece of sheet rock. Half of the mass going to the landfill cannot be categorized as petroleum product.

If your concern is to reduce landfill usage, then your concentration should be on encouraging manufacturers to use recycled products. If there is a demand, the products will be on the market, but the consumer must be willing to pay the additional cost. Therein lies the simple process, there has to be a demand.

Modern landfills themselves are not as detrimental to the environment as supposed in the question. The days of the city "dump" are gone. Landfill cells are typically lined and, when filled, covered over with soil. So long as the matter buried in the cell is not hazardous, the contents pose no greater danger than if it were soil. It is simply fill. The resulting land can then be resused for some other purpose. I'm not advocating landfilling over recycling. I'm simply pointing out that modern landfills are not holes in the ground where every unwanted piece of matter ends up. There are laws regulating how landfills are operated.

Answer 3

There is plenty of data on this. Just start with newspapers. Recycling of newspapers costs so much money now, that some cities are really considering dropping the service. Cities have to pay someone to take it. Just in Wisconsin, the reference indicates that in one average year it costs $65 MILLION dollars to do the recycling of all materials they do. Think how much rain forest could be protected with just half that money. And there is an alternative, incineration which eliminates the waste and produces free electricity, saving oil.

Also, your 50% figure is way way to optimistic. I can't find the reference, but "landfill oil" had a cost of $20 per gallon. and saved very little petroleum in the long run. You have to use petroleum to create petroleum. Even easy to get methane from landfills is very hard to recycle and use.

The last reference is to a television discussion that if repeated, you should watch.

Answer 4

the real problem is that the infastructure needed to handle and process all that trash isn't in place. think about the costs associated with developing that.