from Hacker News

Burn After Wearing

by onychomys on 4/27/24, 11:10 PM with 142 comments

• by banish-m4 on 4/28/24, 12:17 AM

  Fuck. This is such a waste to people who need clothes and of material. This reminds me of the recent ABC (US) investigation about bag recycling where most of the bags were going to incinerators, landfills, or being covertly shipped to Indonesia and Malaysia for "recycling".

• by monero-xmr on 4/28/24, 12:46 AM

  I know a guy who knows a guy, and he says that guy takes medical waste and basically dumps it into the sewer. I don’t know if that’s a euphemism for a river or burying it in the landfill. But basically his business is to have others pass the buck on regulated disposal to him, who then just dumps it. I’m sure this type of thing is fairly common.

• by bugbuddy on 4/28/24, 12:58 AM

  I actually recognize those clothes. They are the ones I walked pass in the malls because they were too expensive.

• by boopmaster on 4/28/24, 1:57 PM

  It wouldn’t be so appalling if the clothes were made from sustainable, biodegradable materials.

  I appreciate that the article calls out the trash as being like an oil slick, which is a sticking point I think we all can be upset about, and use our agency to demand change.

  Don’t buy plastic to wear. Tell manufacturers (brands) they are grotesque for using plastics in clothing.

• by deadbabe on 4/28/24, 12:12 AM

  These kind of places always seem so surreal. They’re like a place you’re not supposed to go, a place where deleted things end up. No humans around except for a few scavengers. Where are some other interesting remote dumping grounds like this where piles of discarded items just sit around abandoned? Is there a dry desert somewhere with a bunch of old beige computers just laying around?

• by userbinator on 4/28/24, 2:07 AM

  I believe that waste should be stored until something useful can be done with it --- on a long enough timescale, everything gets recycled eventually.

• by ilaksh on 4/28/24, 12:52 AM

  Meanwhile, in every city everywhere, we bury mountains and mountains full of arbitrary garbage. This stuff is not buried and a lot ended up burning. At least it's sorted! And arguably burning it could be better than burying it.

• by chriscappuccio on 4/28/24, 3:35 AM

  Looks like a good use of pyrolysis to generate waste oil for energy

• by Beefin on 4/28/24, 1:20 AM

  I asked an LLM: "if there was infinite technology and no limitation on science or physics what would be the most ecological way to dispose of garbage" this was the response:

  Complete Material Recovery: Every scrap of waste could be broken down at the molecular or atomic level and then reassembled into raw materials. This would be a perfect form of recycling where nothing is wasted, and materials are perpetually reused.

  Energy Conversion: Garbage could be converted directly into clean energy through highly efficient processes, perhaps even approaching 100% energy conversion without any emissions or residues.

  Biological Integration: Waste could be processed using engineered organisms or bio-systems that decompose or transform all types of waste into environmentally beneficial substances, like nutrients that support ecosystems rather than disrupt them.

  Space Disposal: With no limitations, safe disposal methods could involve sending waste to the sun or other celestial bodies designed to safely contain or annihilate it without any impact on Earth or its environment.

  is any company working on these solutions?