America's Hot Garbage Problem

petethomas | 60 points

Shoreline, where Google HQ is, was a garbage dump. All those low hills are garbage. At one time they had a methane collection system driving a small power plant, but there's no longer enough methane for that. Once there was a methane fire at a concert.

Palo Alto and Menlo Park had similar garbage dumps, and their hilly parks along the shore of the bay are also trash.

Animats | 8 hours ago

Pretty weird this long article never mentioned waste-to-energy (other than sucking methane out of landfills, which according to the article is making uncontrolled garbage fires more common). Garbage should burn, in modern incineration plants with strict emission standards. Landfills are unsustainable and should be considered a thing of the past.

oefrha | 10 hours ago

I'm everyone's problem

HotGarbage | 10 hours ago

These are "sacrifice zones". See also: every superfund site, Hinkley CA, many spots in WV, Four Corners, most of Houston, Cancer Alley between NOLA and BRLA, and golf courses built on top of toxic fly ash.

burnt-resistor | 11 hours ago

It's interesting that by overdrawing methane (for energy), you introduce oxygen, which makes the compost pile too hot. I wouldn't have thought of that.

Lets build an aerobically bio-heated power station!

MathMonkeyMan | 10 hours ago

Sounds like a toothless regulator problem to me

Havoc | 10 hours ago