bluealvarez (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} bluealvarez) wrote,@ 2008-04-18 09:44:00 |
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Let's Talk Trash
When I was a sophomore in high school (which, keep in mind was 12 years ago), I read an article about thermal depolymerization. It blew my mind so completely, that I thought for sure by the time I was out of college, this would be solution to our waste problems.
Well, I have been out of college for 5 years now, and I can sum up what has happened for you in one sentence: Capitalism strikes again.
Here is a brief timeline of events:
1980's: Guy damn near perfects the steam version of TDP (shorthand for Thermal Depolymerization)
1990's: Guy creates company and gets loads of publicity for his work. EPA forks over some funding.
Early 2000's:
- More publicity from several sources gets turn of century off to promising start for TDP.
- Guy has very narrow minded vision and sees technology as way to make money off of local waste producing companies. Barely breaking even due to fact that his plan calculated companies would pay him to take their waste; turns out to be other way around.
- Global warming activists write off this technology because it turns things made out of petroleum back into petroleum, so they say this doesn't help us create heaters and cars, etc., that run on alternative, non-emitting fuels.
- Other guy meanwhile develops a way to do TDP with microwaves instead of steam (!).
- Government appears to discontinue funding TDP research, probably seeing them as fringe technologies, a threat to the waste management industry, or both. (Oy, commenters, please post a link to the contrary if you can find one - thanks!)
The good news? More people in the media's eye are starting to pay attention to TDP, and they are just as mind-blown by it as I am. And there are still articles being written about it, keeping it in the public's consciousness.
The bad news? Few people seem to see this for what it could be: a highly convenient, efficient means of plastics disposal. We could easily use TDP to convert the majority of modern trash into raw materials for reproducing modern goods. It would simultaneously replace plastic recycling and significantly reduce the waste going into landfills. It's practically an all-out alternative to landfills.
Between TDP, composting, and metals and paper product recycling, we've just accounted for the vast majority of all waste in the United States. Hazardous materials (some of which are broken down by TDP, depending on their origin) are really all that's left.
Can someone tell me why my cousin, for example, who's starting a degree in environmental science next year, isn't getting exposed to this in high school? She was telling me about her current environmental studies class (which, granted, she's lucky enough to even have at school), and the closest they came to discussing waste alternatives was classic recycling and how to build a better landfill. I mentioned TDP to her and she had never heard of it. I'm all for building a base in the classics, but isn't there something wrong with this picture?
I'm going to start a line of home-printed t-shirts made from recycled fabric. "Ask me about thermal depolymerization." "Ask me about The Beauty Myth." "Ask me about veganism." Etc. $5 each. Get the word out.
When I was a sophomore in high school (which, keep in mind was 12 years ago), I read an article about thermal depolymerization. It blew my mind so completely, that I thought for sure by the time I was out of college, this would be solution to our waste problems.
Well, I have been out of college for 5 years now, and I can sum up what has happened for you in one sentence: Capitalism strikes again.
Here is a brief timeline of events:
1980's: Guy damn near perfects the steam version of TDP (shorthand for Thermal Depolymerization)
1990's: Guy creates company and gets loads of publicity for his work. EPA forks over some funding.
Early 2000's:
- More publicity from several sources gets turn of century off to promising start for TDP.
- Guy has very narrow minded vision and sees technology as way to make money off of local waste producing companies. Barely breaking even due to fact that his plan calculated companies would pay him to take their waste; turns out to be other way around.
- Global warming activists write off this technology because it turns things made out of petroleum back into petroleum, so they say this doesn't help us create heaters and cars, etc., that run on alternative, non-emitting fuels.
- Other guy meanwhile develops a way to do TDP with microwaves instead of steam (!).
- Government appears to discontinue funding TDP research, probably seeing them as fringe technologies, a threat to the waste management industry, or both. (Oy, commenters, please post a link to the contrary if you can find one - thanks!)
The good news? More people in the media's eye are starting to pay attention to TDP, and they are just as mind-blown by it as I am. And there are still articles being written about it, keeping it in the public's consciousness.
The bad news? Few people seem to see this for what it could be: a highly convenient, efficient means of plastics disposal. We could easily use TDP to convert the majority of modern trash into raw materials for reproducing modern goods. It would simultaneously replace plastic recycling and significantly reduce the waste going into landfills. It's practically an all-out alternative to landfills.
Between TDP, composting, and metals and paper product recycling, we've just accounted for the vast majority of all waste in the United States. Hazardous materials (some of which are broken down by TDP, depending on their origin) are really all that's left.
Can someone tell me why my cousin, for example, who's starting a degree in environmental science next year, isn't getting exposed to this in high school? She was telling me about her current environmental studies class (which, granted, she's lucky enough to even have at school), and the closest they came to discussing waste alternatives was classic recycling and how to build a better landfill. I mentioned TDP to her and she had never heard of it. I'm all for building a base in the classics, but isn't there something wrong with this picture?
I'm going to start a line of home-printed t-shirts made from recycled fabric. "Ask me about thermal depolymerization." "Ask me about The Beauty Myth." "Ask me about veganism." Etc. $5 each. Get the word out.
