William Eade wrote: > I am all in favor of recycling everything we can. The problem seems to > be that every time anyone proposes a recycling program the NIMBY's come > out in force. Not all that long ago we had a trash to energy plant here > in North San Diego County, ready to go until they decided to build the > San Elijo housing area near there. The County ended up selling off the > plant's equipment for pennys on the dollar. > > I remember reading - many years ago - about a program in New York state > where they had a plant for grinding up about everything that came thru > the system. They said that the machine slowed down a bit momentarily > when it encountered something like a truck axle or an engine crankshaft. > The description was something like a giant garbage disposal. Everything > was ground up and then sorted by first floating off the light substances > which were then dried and used for fuel. > > The remaining substances were then run thru progressively hotter ovens > to remove the pot metal (this was before they used aluminum for so many > things) lead, copper, etc, and then the ferrous materials were removed > by magnets. The remaining slag was then broken up and sold for road > paving and building blocks. The smoke was washed by water spray and the > chemicals were then removed for other uses. The report at that time was > that this recycling plant was the only government run money making > operation in the state. > > If this could be done all that many years ago, why don't we do something > similar now? Oh, I forgot - I already answered that question. The NIMBY's.
That kinda sounds like it might be _one of those stories_. Google shows a bunch of interesting things on recycling history: http://members.aol.com/Ramola15/timeline.html http://www.astc.org/exhibitions/rotten/timeline.htm http://www.epa.gov/msw/timeline_alt.htm http://www.alliedwastesanmateocounty.com/kids_trash_timeline-printer.cfm and about 19,800,000-4 others <heh> In the few I scanned, I didn't see anything quite like your recollection, though. Regards, ..jim -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
