bonifartius 𒂼𒄄
just had the frightening thought that western civilization (at least whats left) continues to decline and there will be no places anymore which properly can burn plastic stuff away.
europe will look like a slum with garbage _everywhere_ in my lifetime. ffs.
@bonifartius, isn’t Sweden has been burning waste for energy for quite a while now?
@cnx sure, most of europe does it! i'm not sure if it's terribly efficient and you probably often need to add natural gas to reach the right temperatures. too low and you get toxic half burned stuff from all the halogenated plastic.
look at how the west is doing currently. the first things going to be shut down are these things if shit hits the fan. it's just too easy to throw garbage into the next forest/river/etc.
Well @bonifartius I hope they’ll continue doing it, I remember reading they even imported waste from other countries. To be pessimistic, it’s unlikely that they will throw garbage into the next forest/river though, that’s simply not how rich nations behave.
@cnx
> it’s unlikely that they will throw garbage into the next forest/river though, that’s simply not how rich nations behave
i sure hope so, but experience shows that these things are the first where costs are cut. iirc even the cleanup from seveso ended up not being properly treated but in the environment (because the mob controlled the garbage disposal business..).
I was hinting that they would somehow export garbage to poorer countries with laxer emission laws if burning plastic energy is ever outlawed, @bonifartius, but I hope that won’t be the case.
@cnx ah, i missed that nuance :)
i'd argue that this is in some ways already the case, environmental costs often are externalized to 2nd and 3rd world countries. this especially pisses me of in the case of supposedly "green" technologies, like lithium harvesting for battery electric cars.
@cnx (i'm not known for being an optimist ;)