Milestones in the history of garbage.

[NNadir]

Here is a fascinating website.

...1957 High density polyethylene (HDPE) is developed by Standard Oil of Indiana and Phillips Petroleum (now used for milk containers).

1958 The Bic Crystal Company introduces the throwaway pen.

1959 The American Society of Civil Engineers publishes a standard guide to sanitary landfilling. To guard against rodents and odors, it suggests compacting the refuse and covering it with a layer of soil each day.

1959 Philadelphia closes its reduction plant (a facility for turning organic wastes into fats, grease, and oils), the last one in the country...

http://www.astc.org/exhibitions/rotten/timeline.htm

I'll bet the next rendering plant will be presented as an innovation.

[depakid]

1. Interesting. There are some amazing stats

in Amory Lovins' book Natural Capitalism:

Fresh Kills on Staten Island receives 26 million pounds of commerical and household waste per day.

Industry moves, extracts, shovels, burns, wastes, pumps and disposes of 4 million pounds of material to provide one average middle class family's needs for a year.

In sum, Americans waste or cause to be wasted nearly 1 million pounds of materials per person per year.

Total annual wastes excluding wastewater now exceed 50 trillion pounds per year!

Factor in wastewater and that's 250 trillion pounds.

Less than 2% of the total waste stream is recycled.

Over the course of a decade, 500 trillion pounds of American resources will have been transformed into unproductive solids and gasses.

Wow.

That's some material entropy.

[Dead_Parrot]

2. "unproductive solids and gasses"

For some reason, first word that popped into my head when I read that, was "Congress".

Gotta love the subconscious. :)

[NNadir]

3. Unfortunately some people are inclined to recycle congress.

This is one case where I think disposal is superior.

[Dead_Parrot]

4. There would be a certain satisfaction...

...to seeing Inhofe encased in borosilicate glass and buried under a mountain.

[NNadir]

5. Ah, but how can we tell that ranchers in the future won't dig him up?

[Dead_Parrot]

6. Well, if we don't bury him...

There probably won't be any ranchers in the future. But who the hell would want to dig miles under a mountain anyway? And even if they don't understand the "Warning: Asshat" signs, if they've got the technology for that sort of excavation, it's a safe bet they'll have bullshit detectors.

[NNadir]

7. Maybe we can engrave the internationally known danger sign on the door.

That should scare potential intruders away.

[Dead_Parrot]

8. Agh! Jeez...

Give me some warning before you do that, I nearly had an accident...