Zap the trash
Instead of putting our trash into landfill what if we turned it into electricity and commercially usable biproducts? That’s exactly the promise of Plasma Recycling. Pilot Plasma Recycling plants are already in operation in various parts of the world turning trash into treasure. Basically they zap garbage with a high voltage plasma and convert it into syngas plus basic chemical elements with commercial value. The syngas is burnt to produce electricity and on balance the plant consumes less energy than it produces whilst avoiding the need for landfill. Actually 1 tonne of waste into the system does leave about 1 kg that goes into landfill but it is a 99.9% reduction.
Why do I mention it here? Firstly it’s a pretty cool application of technology. Secondly everybody hates capitalism because it makes us rich and fouls up the planet. Now the imperative for hating capitalism can be somewhat diminished.
Here is one company that is cashing in on the technique:-
http://www.plascoenergygroup.com/?The_Plasco_Advantage
The bit I really like is that once these things are online we won’t have to sort the garbage any more. We can just zap the lot.
