As far as landfills go, the projected landfill space needed for the next century would be a 35 by 35 mile square of land, totalling up to 1,225 square miles. The USA has has 3,618,770 square miles of land. That’s like saying you need 2/3 of a square mile in Delaware to use for a landfill to hold trash for the next century.
Also, the space needed to store and process the recycling far exceeds the amount of space needed to just create a landfill for that rubbish. The chemicals and energy required for recycling contribute more toxic waste and air pollution than just putting it in a landfill as well. In addition, more people are exposed to disease since workers must handle the rubbish directly and it must be stored in open areas.
So does recycling save landfill space? No, not when you consider you have to build places to store and reprocess.
So is it better for the environment? No, the energy used and toxic waste creates more pollution than just burying it.
It creates more jobs right? Yeah crappy jobs that shorten lives through exposure to toxic waste and disease.
You seem to be up on your recycling information. A question I was pondering today is which is the most green heating/energy source for the home gas or electricity? are natural gas supplies more plentiful than petroleum?
All depends on the heating system. If you have an old gas unit, it’s not very efficient. Same with heat pumps put in the wrong climate…they aren’t meant to work everywhere.
The newest gas units are extremely efficient. A combination domestic hot water/home heating unit called the MZ boiler unit. The concept was developed in Europe and it’s more or less a tankless heater that circulates and creates hot water on demand instead of storing it in a tank.
However, there are geothermal heat pumps that that run on electricity are extremely efficient. I helped spec and design one for my parents house. The unit takes advantage of the earth’s natural energy source/heat sink found in the ground that stays a constant 55-60F year round. In the winter it takes this heat and pumps it inside and in the summer rejects the houses heat to the ground. You do this by burying pipes in the ground or using wells and groundwater. In addition, the heat from the compressor on the units is used to heat the domestic hot water…so essentially as long as the unit is running your hot water is free.
Thanks, Brian. THere is a lot of intersting information in there for me. Here in the UK the majority of homes are heated by oil fired gas central heating using convection radiators and many use mains gas for cooking also, I was wondering if the use of these methods are more green. This led me to wondering, in turn, if the world supplies of gas are great than that of oil. Again here in the UK (mostly North Sea but also domestic) we have resources of both.
Natural gas and propane burns the cleanest and their emissions are fairly low. So for home heating it’s probably the most green. However, depending on your region electricity can be just as green if it’s coming from a “green” power plant. Modern coal plants are only 45-50% efficient…that is…only 45% of the heat from the coal is actually converted to electrical energy. Gas plants are only 5% better…Hydro plants are the most efficient and nuclear very efficient as well. Each have their own advantages and disadvantages.
At the home electric conversion is efficient and can be fairly inexpensive as well…
Thanks Brian, for clearing that up for me.