New Type Of Landfill

[All Seeing Eye]

Why do governments just bury waste on landfill? seems silly and a waste of space.

My Idea:

Drill a massive circular hole in the Earth and drill it down as far as possible creating a tubular excavation site in the ground. Cover all the edges and bottom with concrete or metal. Above this excavated area build a huge compresser in the shape of a cigarette that will fit perfectly into the excavated area.
All waste is then dumped into this huge excavation site and every now and then it is compressed into the ground, eventually the excavated area will become full until it cannot be compressed anymore. After it is full build a Methane extraction unit and place it over the top of the excavated area. As the years pass all the rubbish under the extractor will decompose and give off Methane.
Now because the excavated area does not use much land area up because of how deep it is drilled other areas around the original site can also be excavated and the same thing done.

Well? good idea eh.

 

[Forbin]

Doesn't the solid concrete container defeat the purpose of a landfill? Now it's just a big garbage can that siuts there forever. Landfills are often used to extend useable land area for development, or create parks.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

It's not just doing nothing, it's giving off Methane for collection which can then be turned into power and like I said it's not going to use that much land area up because the volume of the excavated area is more vertical than horizontal and the waste is actually being completely compressed and not just dumped and covered up and hidden with dirt.
You'd be amazed at just how much waste you can fit into a small area when it's compressed.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

Imagine a powerstation burning Methane to create electricity and all around this station are these methane extractors over the tops of hundreds of these 'big garbage cans' as you put it. The methane is literally piped from the 'garbage cans' directly to the powerstation.

It's also billions of times cleaner and efficient than just burning the waste.

Ingenius.

 

[ALF]

Due to the incredible expense of the compressor, I'm thinking it would have to be portable. Is this part of the design?

 

[All Seeing Eye]

Due to the incredible expense of the compressor, I'm thinking it would have to be portable. Is this part of the design?

Yes, because once the compressor is no longer used on that particular area (when it's full) it needs moving for the extractor to be put there.
The compressor will be moved by use of caterpillar tracks. The compressor will have a heavy base and have the capability to be bolted down to prevent it from lifting into the air during compression.

Whilst one area is being used for garbage dumping and compressing workers will be busy excavating the next site.

 

[DontFeedPhil]

You are forgetting to mention the cost of the liner for the garbage in the earth. Cause that shit can leak some toxic shit...

 

[All Seeing Eye]

^ wuh

 

[JoeZhang]

And how far down do you plan to drill?

 

[Meredith]

They are already building new landfills that harvest Methane from decompisition that then use the methane to power industry.

 

[Plecostomus]

They use a variation of this concept to dispose of incinerator ash. Waste Managment owns a network of incinerator plants and they truck the ash to disposal sites.

What they do is build a cell like you describe and load ash into it and compact it down. They can get several years worth of material into a single cell, each site has room for a dozen or so cells.

The key is the liner, the ash can leach some nasty toxic stuff so they use a multistage liner and leachate recovery system to prevent groundwater contamination.

In fact most new lined landfills have lechate recovery now if I am not mistaken.

 

[BolianAuthor]

There's no way we'll ever be able to effectively "dispose" of all our toxic waste. We can only relocate it. The toxic nature of the compounds will last well into a time after we've probably left the world, and who knows what effect the natural movement of land will have on any containment structures? This means that future lifeforms on this world will have to deal with the consequences.

The BEST thing to do, as silly as it may sound, is develop the technology to again separate the elements of the toxic compounds, into their non-toxic states. That would eliminate the toxic nature of the waste, as well as restore the compounds to their original state, giving us a resource we can renew.

Anything else is not really addressing the real core of the problem... the toxic nature of the waste. Unless we eliminate that, all we're really doing, is moving the waste from one spot to the other aimlessly.

 

[T J]

^ wuh

Don't you love having a brilliant idea only to be mercylessly shot down by these people... It's hard to post on this board.

I think it's a great idea. We need more people like you thinking this stuff up.

 

[farmkid]

There's no way we'll ever be able to effectively "dispose" of all our toxic waste. We can only relocate it. The toxic nature of the compounds will last well into a time after we've probably left the world, and who knows what effect the natural movement of land will have on any containment structures? This means that future lifeforms on this world will have to deal with the consequences.

The BEST thing to do, as silly as it may sound, is develop the technology to again separate the elements of the toxic compounds, into their non-toxic states. That would eliminate the toxic nature of the waste, as well as restore the compounds to their original state, giving us a resource we can renew.

Anything else is not really addressing the real core of the problem... the toxic nature of the waste. Unless we eliminate that, all we're really doing, is moving the waste from one spot to the other aimlessly.

Actually, there is a way. A process called thermal depolymerization essentially recapitulates what happens in the ground over a long time to turn organic material into oil, except that it does it in a few hours using heat and pressure. The products are crude oil, natural gas, water, and minerals. Any organic material that goes in comes out as those things--trash, medical waste, sewage, biohazard waste, even nasty chemical waste. The only hazardous waste that is not neutralized is radioactive waste.

This technology has been around for a long time, but only a few years ago did anyone figure out how to do it with a net output of energy. The natural gas produced provides the energy to run the process, the water is clean enough to drink, and the oil is ready for refining into gasoline or diesel or whatever. There is currently a prototype commercial-sized plant operating outside a Butterball turkey factory somewhere in in the Midwest processing the feathers, blood, etc. from the factory. I hope to eventually see one of these located outside every major city to process the municipal waste, sewage, and other waste produced by the city.

From the stuff I read about it, it seems that this solves our trash problem, hazardous waste problem, and oil problem. We produce enough trash every year to satisfy our oil needs through this process.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

^ I find it a little hard to believe that you can get oil from all different kinds of waste.

 

[Chaos Descending]

^ I find it a little hard to believe that you can get oil from all different kinds of waste.

Your inability to believe does not negate the fact.

 

[John Picard]

They are already building new landfills that harvest Methane from decomposition that then use the methane to power industry.

It's about damned time. Both landfills and water treatment facilities produce enormous amounts of methane and merely burn it off. Right there is a source of fuel for cars. Cleaner and more efficient than the battery cars do-gooders think will save the world.

Overall, the OP's design would fail. The cost outweighs the return of what the methane would sell for at a price. Housing the waste in concrete would negate the ability to produce methane. That much concrete alone would kill the cost, let alone the steel and hydraulics.

 

[Kaziarl]

Not to mention, where you going to put that much dirt while your compressing the trash? Man made mountain or something?

 

[Aquehonga]

Them thar dumps pix o'yars make me townsfolk sickhome when they're aways

 

[All Seeing Eye]

You're all just jealous of my uber ideas.

Wow, check this out!