Monday, July 31, 2006

Landfill Mining: this is what I've been saying for years.

"If we don't throw away our cans and bottles, what are we going to mine from the landfills in 50 years?" Me, in the past.


According to "There's Gold in Them Thar Smelly Hills", Alcoa thinks there is more aluminum in landfills than in Al mines. With the cost of energy (and hence aluminum) going up, it may actually be economical to mine landfills for metals soon.


So do your part, stop separating your recyclables and put everything in the dumpster. Our children will be depending on this resource.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It gets even better: it's not only aluminum, it's aluminum that doesn't require an expensive separation process from the other elements found in aluminum ore. Read the wikipedia article: Aluminum separation

Anonymous said...

I forgot to say... when I read the title: "Landfill Mining..." I thought "Gee, why would you put a minefield in a landfill. I bet it could be fun, though..."

Jeff said...

That could be on Dirty Jobs.