DJ V Lawrence Posted September 9, 2006 Share Posted September 9, 2006 http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4174691.htmlFORT PIERCE, Fla. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJones Posted September 9, 2006 Share Posted September 9, 2006 Talk about SCI-FI, WOWZERS ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
editor Posted September 9, 2006 Share Posted September 9, 2006 So... if every city did this, would it make the Earth lighter?You think we have problems with global warming? Wait until the Earth starts to leave its orbit! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNiche Posted September 9, 2006 Share Posted September 9, 2006 Could something like that work for our chemical and industrial plants in SE Texas? It was said that 33% of the air polution in the Houston area were caused from industrial plants. That could be significantly reduced with this, yeah? Also, we could close a lot of the current landfills in Houston and eventually convert them into development spaces and golf courses. Is that all thesible?Florida is making a poor public investment choice. I've got an uncle that is a consultant that works with municipalities that express interest in the technology. Among the few places where it makes sense are islands like those in Hawaii, where real estate is uniformly expensive and hauling the trash to less expensive real estate is not economically feasible. Those kinds of hauls are feasible in the continental U.S., however. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJones Posted September 10, 2006 Share Posted September 10, 2006 I was thinking a little harder about this, 18 years to dispose of ONE landfill ? It's progress I guess, but just how many landfills do you think are out there ? I personally don't know which would cause more pollution either. Something that burns night and day exposing more of what would seem MORE chemical waste into the atmosphere. Just how "clean-burning" is this plant ? Of course, thinking that they are burning stuff up at a temperature hotter than the sun, there may not be time for any toxic gases to escape. This is very interesting to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
editor Posted September 10, 2006 Share Posted September 10, 2006 Florida is making a poor public investment choice. I've got an uncle that is a consultant that works with municipalities that express interest in the technology. Among the few places where it makes sense are islands like those in Hawaii, where real estate is uniformly expensive and hauling the trash to less expensive real estate is not economically feasible. Those kinds of hauls are feasible in the continental U.S., however.A "poor public investment choice" is not always strictly a financial choice.The citizens of cities like Austin, San Francisco, and even New York (occasionally) are more than willing to spend extra money for environmental purposes.Perhaps this city in Florida is more like Austin than Houston. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ V Lawrence Posted September 10, 2006 Author Share Posted September 10, 2006 A "poor public investment choice" is not always strictly a financial choice.The citizens of cities like Austin, San Francisco, and even New York (occasionally) are more than willing to spend extra money for environmental purposes.Perhaps this city in Florida is more like Austin than Houston....but could this help Houston area if we invested in it? We've been the considered the "smogiest" city in America a few times this decade. Maybe something like this could keep us out of the top 20 on that list for good? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
editor Posted September 10, 2006 Share Posted September 10, 2006 ...but could this help Houston area if we invested in it? We've been the considered the "smogiest" city in America a few times this decade. Maybe something like this could keep us out of the top 20 on that list for good? I don't know that it would help Houston all that much. It depends on how efficient the current Houston incinerators are. If they're new and work well and don't pollute much, then it probably won't help much. If they're old and stinky, it might be something to look at. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Houston burn all of its garbage? If that's true then with a contraption like this, Houston could make money taking in garbage from other cities and making it go away. Just like Sim City. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedScare Posted September 10, 2006 Share Posted September 10, 2006 A "poor public investment choice" is not always strictly a financial choice.The citizens of cities like Austin, San Francisco, and even New York (occasionally) are more than willing to spend extra money for environmental purposes.Perhaps this city in Florida is more like Austin than Houston.Exactly. Cities are not in the business of making money. If it costs a little more to make the city more livable, and the citizens approve, then it is the proper choice.Houston does not own its landfills. Garbage is hauled to a transfer station, where it is loaded onto 18 wheelers to be transported to privately owned dumps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UrbaNerd Posted September 10, 2006 Share Posted September 10, 2006 Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Houston burn all of its garbage? If that's true then with a contraption like this, Houston could make money taking in garbage from other cities and making it go away.Just like Sim City. And yes, in Sim City, you can download a Plasma Trash thingy, as well! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
editor Posted September 10, 2006 Share Posted September 10, 2006 Houston does not own its landfills. Garbage is hauled to a transfer station, where it is loaded onto 18 wheelers to be transported to privately owned dumps.Interesting. I thought I saw an incinerator down near 288 and the Beltway. Maybe it was something else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ V Lawrence Posted September 11, 2006 Author Share Posted September 11, 2006 Exactly. Cities are not in the business of making money.If Houston were in that business of making extra cash, and it didn't involve gambling, would Houstonians not want this idea?What I really want is for city officials to look into and research this idea and see if it could benifit Houston or not. We don't know what kind of impact this could make for Houston, but it wouldn't hurt to find out. Even if it's not for Houston, at least we'd know that to be fact... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNiche Posted September 12, 2006 Share Posted September 12, 2006 A "poor public investment choice" is not always strictly a financial choice.The citizens of cities like Austin, San Francisco, and even New York (occasionally) are more than willing to spend extra money for environmental purposes.Perhaps this city in Florida is more like Austin than Houston.I recognize that there is a distinct difference between PUBLIC investments and PRIVATE investments. That is the fundamental difference between the fields of economics and finance. When I refer to public investments, the numbers take into account changes in positive and negative externalities as part of those investments.You are correct that Austin, SF, and NYC are willing to spend more money than Houston is on environmental purposes, but none of them is seriously considering this technology. It is just way too easy to transport garbage to rural locales around which there are few people and thus smaller negative externalities. The marginal benefit from such an expensive project just isn't worth it.If Houston were in that business of making extra cash, and it didn't involve gambling, would Houstonians not want this idea?What I really want is for city officials to look into and research this idea and see if it could benifit Houston or not. We don't know what kind of impact this could make for Houston, but it wouldn't hurt to find out. Even if it's not for Houston, at least we'd know that to be fact...Even if we built such a facility, the long run average cost per ton of processed garbage would mean that the rates that we'd charge would not be competitive with traditional landfills. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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