Futuristic Garbology - Can it Happen?

 

by Hans Tammemagi

 

The time capsule sits silently and impassively giving no clue to what we can expect at our destination -- the year 2050. With beating hearts, our small group of landfill engineers and scientist (garbologists) enters and soon the countdown begins. There is only the briefest feeling of levitation and we arrive in the future.

 

Our curiosity is at a fever pitch. What has happened to the earth in the five decades that we so miraculously skipped over? Before we departed, the population had just passed 6 billion and the environment was wilting under this onslaught. Would we find air that was breathable, only traces of an ozone layer, any remnants of tropical or old-growth forests? Would Niagara be one giant parking lot?

 

We begin our futuristic exploration, like archaeologists working in reverse, moving invisibly through this new time domain.

 

Conservation Ethic

 

What a change! There has been a revolution in attitude, and an ethic of conservation pervades all levels of society. The streets are no longer choked with traffic, although small motorized bicycles, some built for two or three people, dart everywhere. There is no haze, the air feels clean and brisk, and the streets are completely free of litter. As we soon discover, every house, apartment building, street corner, park, airport, shopping mall, baseball diamond, has recycling containers. People treat garbage as a resource, and spend considerable effort in separating the various recyclable components.

 

This change did not come easily. Plugged into virtual-reality computers in the public library, we witness the environmental crisis of the previous decade. Growing population, a voracious consumer society, and the expanding economies of third world countries led to enormous stress on natural resources and the environment. Power blackouts struck with devastating regularity. Prices of consumer goods skyrocketed due to shortages of raw materials. There were riots at stores and malls. Curfews were imposed in large cities to limit exposure to the dank, health-sapping smog. Thanks to the library's virtual-reality computer systems, we felt like we were living in the middle of the nightmare.

 

The movement away from the consumer lifestyle started in Niagara, where citizens watched in anguish as their orchards and vineyards fell under the bulldozer's blade and the stately beauty of the Carolinian forest and the delicate waterfalls that tumbled over the Niagara Escarpment turned dark with the ravage of pollution. First a few voices cried out in protest, then a loud chorus joined them. Their voices echoed across the Peninsula, and gathering momentum, a tidal wave of protest swept across the province. The conservation revolution had begun.

 

Like a wildflower bursting forth from the cinders of a burned-out forest, conservation fever suddenly gripped the world. In a single decade, society completely overturned the consumerism lifestyle that had been practiced for so long -- and saved the earth by doing so.

 

Emerging from the library, we observe that conservation and waste reduction are embraced by all. Re-usable shopping bags made of sturdy, ultra-thin materials fold into the size of a matchbox and fit conveniently in a pocket or purse. We learn that the conservation ethic affects not just garbage, but the consumption of all natural resources including water, electricity, natural gas, and petroleum products. The per-capita demand for electricity and other energy sources has declined to almost half of what it is in our era. Many small private generating stations, based mostly on hydro, solar and wind, have sprung up and make a substantial contribution to the electricity grid.

 

The big car companies no longer change the design of their cars each year. Instead, like the Volkswagen beetle of long ago, the models retain the same form for many years with emphasis on durability and practical function rather than on glitzy style. Most consumer goods including computers, tires, light bulbs, photocopiers, and, of course, drink bottles, carry a substantial deposit, ensuring they are returned for recycling.

 

Economists have devised ways of calculating the financial value of our natural ecosystem, which is included in all business transactions. Our futuristic friends recognize, for example, that polluted air leads to degradation in quality of life, impairment of health, and significant health care costs. No longer are landfills the bargain they are in our day, and this eco-costing has affected many other areas including transportation with huge increases in public transit and decreases in car emissions.

 

And, perhaps surprisingly, we notice it is a win-win situation. While the environment has improved, the overall cost of living has decreased due to the greater durability of most products and because, at the end of their useful life, they are recycled directly to the manufacturers, who re-use many of the components.

 

Recycling

 

New companies have been created that collect broken and discarded household appliances including televisions, power tools, and furniture for refurbishing and reselling. These firms have flourished, some with franchises across the country. Shares in these companies are the darlings of the stock market.

 

The material recycle facility has become the mainstay of the waste management system. We are fascinated by the technologies that have been developed to separate different recyclable materials. One machine separates different plastics using bar-code scanner technology to read plastic symbols. Another machine separates glass by colour as well as by size of fragment. Everything has become highly mechanized and very little scrap is left. The final products are baled and packaged exactly as the customers require.

 

Processing of recyclable materials has become a major growth industry. The brightest, most creative young men and women choose careers in developing new recycling technologies and designing new products from recycled materials.

 

We are fascinated to learn that industrial parks surround the major waste management facilities. Dozens of small industries have attached themselves to recycle centres in a symbiotic relationship. These companies are very innovative and entrepreneurial in recovering, refurbishing, and reselling every conceivable type of material including car parts, white goods such as refrigerators and stoves, scrap metal, small appliances, and electronics.

 

These "scavenger" industries help ensure that a minimal amount of waste actually goes to disposal. Energy production, by incinerating some of the waste, has also been a contributing factor in the growth of these industrial parks. There are jobs in working at the power plants, and the availability of cheap power has attracted many industries.

 

Composting facilities are integral parts of these centres, and by law, every home must have a composter. The ample supply of high-quality compost has led to a growth in vegetable and flower gardens leading to a beneficial effect on health. Public parks flourishing and every city is attractively decorated with flowers and plants. There is an underlying sense of civic pride that is sadly missing from our own era.

 

Landfills

 

Unlike our society where landfills are the cornerstone of waste management, they are now considered blight, polluting the atmosphere and groundwater and taking up valuable land space. Every effort is being made to phase them out.

 

Tens of thousands of landfills that remain from yesteryear are being systematically reclaimed by mining. These projects extract metals and glass with the rest being incinerated. A breakthrough technology has allowed paper and cellulose products to also be separated from the old landfills.

 

The public is fascinated by the archaeological aspects of landfill mining and is particularly amused by the things discarded in the past, items which now are illegal to place into landfills. We are embarrassed, recognizing that it is our refuse that is the subject of amusement.

 

All remaining landfills have comprehensive gas collection systems. Although the prime purpose is to prevent air pollution, burning the gas (primarily methane or natural gas) also provides valuable energy, saving a considerable amount of fossil fuel and the accompanying atmospheric pollution. With excellent recycling, far less garbage is produced, so a single landfill can serve many cities. Rail delivery of waste is routine.

 

And many new landfills have gone underground. This has been a boon for areas such as the northeastern USA where land space is at a premium. Waste, with all recyclables removed, is received at these landfills where some of it, such as incinerator ash, is mixed with cement to form a durable, rock-like mass. It is then dumped down shafts into large caverns. Once filled, the caverns and shafts are sealed with concrete.

 

Rock aggregate, produced by the mining operation is used in road building and other civil engineering projects. The major benefit of going into inner space, however, has been safety. No longer are bad odours or groundwater pollution associated with landfills.

 

Incineration

 

Just as technological advances saved the world from starvation by dramatically increasing crop yields, it was recognized that technology was urgently needed in waste management. This explains why we see so many incinerators.

 

Incineration is an important component of both landfill mining programs and recycle centres. Rather than ugly objects of scorn, incinerators now form the heart of community centres, surrounded by swimming pools and green houses that are heated by their energy. These centres are emblazoned with colourful gardens, nurtured by compost from adjoining composting facilities. Pollution control technology has evolved considerably, decreasing air emissions from incinerators. To satisfy the public's unlimited appetite for environmental information, electronic billboards are installed near incinerators displaying instantaneous readings of stack emissions for all to see.

 

Waste incineration, combined with energy from landfill methane, not only saves renewable resources such as oil, but also significantly reduces emissions of greenhouse and acid gases into the atmosphere.

 

A major breakthrough has been the development of beneficial uses for incinerator ash. New epoxy technologies and improvements in concrete have transformed ash from garbage incinerators, and also from coal-fired power stations and other ash generating industries, into valuable construction materials. The result is a greatly reduced amount of material going to landfill, and also a decrease in the demand for aggregate, helping preserve natural areas from quarrying.

 

We see that the garbage business has evolved from yesteryear's stigma of dirty, smelly, and unwanted, to being associated with industry, jobs, and opportunity. In contrast to our day, communities now compete ferociously to attract these waste facilities and their accompanying Industrial parks.

 

Just before we return to our own time, we catch a late-breaking news story: in the past year the amount of refuse generated per person decreased to 0.5 kg (about 25% of what was being produced in 1999) and 83% of this was diverted from landfills (compared to about 20% in our day).

 

A sense of melancholy settles over us as we travel back to present-day Niagara. Although the future is good, we wonder whether it was only a dream, a small piece of virtual-reality fiction. We also muse whether it would be possible to instill the futuristic conservation ethic in today's society, before the globe is thrust into a dark abyss. Certainly, most of the waste management technologies we saw are within reach today. But, sadly, one essential element is missing: our own resolve and determination.