There is No "Away"

[forsyth]

In a lot of RPGs, WoW for instance, when you throw something away, it disappears from your inventory and the world, for good.

It's not like that in the real world. We're all here on the bottom of this thin ocean of air surrounding a ball of molten rock. You're breathing the same oxygen the dinosaurs did. The carbon in that burger you ate could be the same as Abe Lincoln ate.

So what happens when you throw something away? Most of the time, it gets driven off to somewhere, and then tossed on a pile with a lot of other things people didn't want or need any more. Eventually, it all gets covered with plastic and buried under dirt. It's still there. It doesn't disappear.

The Earth is largely a closed system. There is no "away" where we can just throw things and forget about them. Solid, liquid, or gas, it's still gonna be here with us.

Comments

[amazingadrian.livejournal.com]

The Earth is indeed a closed system. I've often wondered about taking the excess outside of the system; IE, into space.

But then I wonder...That plastic, carbon, ect. has been part of the Earth for millenia. If we take it out of the system entirely...what would happen later on? Would we start finding gaps in the Earth's supply? Sure, it's a process that takes thousands of years, but you gotta wonder about it...

I think sooner or later, someone will develop something that will atomize all that garbage back into its base components. Whatever it is will have to run clean. It may not happen during our lifetime, but someday.

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

And whoever develops it will probably make a fortune which dwarfs any previous concepts of wealth.

As for running clean, if it can atomize anything, it can break down its own waste products too. About the only thing that might be a concern is power consumption and heat production.

[amazingadrian.livejournal.com]

I read an article in Popular Mechanics once about utilizing near microscopic robots for just this sort of thing. It's not technology we have yet, but it is a place we are getting to.

Even if it only worked on a small scale, like say on only X and Y materials, but not Z. It'd still make a heck of a difference.

[forsythferret.livejournal.com]

Plastic is long chains of carbon with hydrogen sprinkled around the outsides. Most living tissue is hydrocarbons too. The problem with plastic is the same as its benefit. Nothing digests it. Which is why it's good for keeping food separate from bugs, but makes it hang around forever once it gets "thrown away".

This guy has calibrated a microwave to zap the hydrocarbons and break them apart into, basically, methane and oil or diesel fuel, simple shorter hydrocarbons. Which can then either be burned, or be re-processed into new plastics. Doesn't do much about the carbon dioxide buildup from burning fossil fuels, since it releases the carbon trapped in the plastics. But if it was tweaked to work on, say, plant material... Though there's other ways of gasifying organic materials.

And here is an article about plastic made by bacteria, that can biodegrade after use.