Why Isn't Landfill Mining More Popular?

Re:Why Isn't Landfill Mining More Popular? by WirelessGigabit on Friday November 24, 2023 @01:53PM (#38406917)

The US has way too much space for incineration to become more cost-effective than just dumping it in a giant hole in the ground.

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Re:Why Isn't Landfill Mining More Popular? by ponector on Friday November 24, 2023 @02:03PM (#38407039)

Could be true for small cities. But try to find an empty space suitable for landfill near NYC.

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Re:Why Isn't Landfill Mining More Popular? by saalweachter on Friday November 24, 2023 @02:16PM (#38407175)

Up until 2001, it was inside NYC.

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Re:Why Isn't Landfill Mining More Popular? by mbiondi on Friday November 24, 2023 @02:32PM (#38407314)

And now they ship it down south to states who are happy to take it.

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Re:Why Isn't Landfill Mining More Popular? by eesmith on Friday November 24, 2023 @03:40PM (#38408019)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobro_4000

> The Mobro 4000 was a barge owned by MOBRO Marine, Inc. made infamous in 1987 for hauling the same load of trash along the east coast of North America from New York City to Belize and back until a way was found to dispose of the garbage. ...

> In 1987, the City of New York found that it had reached its landfill capacity. The city agreed to ship its garbage to Morehead City, North Carolina, where there were plans to convert it into methane.

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Re:Why Isn't Landfill Mining More Popular? by odiroot on Saturday November 25, 2023 @10:43AM (#38414185)

Tony Soprano might have an answer.

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Re:Why Isn't Landfill Mining More Popular? by Solvency on Friday November 24, 2023 @02:04PM (#38407052)

Until you go to your local landfill and see the massive fuming hellscape spanning thousands of acres with mountains of garbage just laying there and mentally extrapolate how it will look even 10 more years from now.

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Re:Why Isn't Landfill Mining More Popular? by justinator on Friday November 24, 2023 @04:36PM (#38408646)

The landfill here in town has a sledding hill, swimming pool, jungle gym, and a skate park. It was in the hinterlands of the town, but the town grew fast.

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Re:Why Isn't Landfill Mining More Popular? by astrange on Friday November 24, 2023 @02:40PM (#38407394)

My local landfill is at the southern end of San Francisco Bay and there really isn't anything notable about it.

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Re:Why Isn't Landfill Mining More Popular? by rascul on Friday November 24, 2023 @02:18PM (#38407189)

It can look like this

https://freshkillspark.org/

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Re:Why Isn't Landfill Mining More Popular? by SteveNuts on Friday November 24, 2023 @02:34PM (#38407335)

Thus, solving the problem once and for all!

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Re:Why Isn't Landfill Mining More Popular? by gruez on Friday November 24, 2023 @02:12PM (#38407124)

>and mentally extrapolate how it will look even 10 more years from now.

I did some napkin math and concluded that it's a non-issue. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38407111

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Re:Why Isn't Landfill Mining More Popular? by sanswork on Friday November 24, 2023 @05:01PM (#38408865)

The largest landfill in the US was only 700acres after almost 60 years in operation supporting LA.

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Re:Why Isn't Landfill Mining More Popular? by tempusr on Friday November 24, 2023 @05:21PM (#38409032)

or ~1 square mile

or ~3 square kilometers

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