Our town recycling center is now making a profit as the metal that we put into the recycling bins is now worth more and the waste haulers now paying us to take it away. Our waste oil is also worth more so the same situation holds true.
I wonder when someone will start mining landfills to recover metals?
It’s just that you don’t see it in Steve’s ShinyLand.
Actually, I do see it here.
For over 30 years, DTE Biomass Energy has been dedicated to building and operating landfill gas-to-energy projects. By capturing the methane gas naturally produced in landfills, DTE Biomass Energy has created a sustainable source of RNG while providing landfill owners with a consistent revenue stream. In 2019, DTE Biomass Energy expanded its operations to provide renewable energy expertise to the agricultural space, working with dairy farmers to process dairy waste into RNG.
There are two big landfills a few miles from casa del Steve. One is connected to DTE’s system. The other one has a gas collection system, but the gas is flared off. Don’t know why the second one isn’t connected. That is a big flare, far more than my home furnace burns when it’s running.
Recovering gas but I’m talking about people working landfills
15 million people were estimated to live and work in garbage dump communities worldwide as of 2017, and this number was on the rise in 2019. It’s estimated to continue to rise as the pandemic impacts already vulnerable communities around the world. https://www.intsam.org/about-garbage-dump-communities/
15 million people were estimated to live and work in garbage dump communities worldwide as of 2017,
In Shinyland, a lot of dumps are privately owned. Michigan is a particularly shiny example. The state subsidized private companies building dumps, and the state tip fee is peanuts, so trash and garbage is trucked to Michigan hundreds of miles from other states and parts of Canada. Luminaries like Waste Management would not allow other people to dig through their trash.
In Shinyland, people dig through the dumpsters before the trash goes to the private landfills. I walked out of the Radio Shack one day to see two guys with their car parked next to the store’s dumpster. One guy standing in the dumpster handing items to the guy standing by the car. We had to smash any junk merchandise before we threw it out so that the dumpster divers couldn’t pull the stuff out of the dumpster, bring it into the store and demand a cash refund for it. One guy took exception to our smashing stuff. One day, the manager got to the store and found the lock fulled with Crazy Glue and a note “thou shall not smash things you throw away”. That is a special sort of shiny chutzpah to vandalize a business because the business doesn’t let you scam them.