America - The Sudia Arabia of Trash

I like looking at opportunities. One of our country's greatest un-natural resources is trash. We have trash everywhere. Mountains of garbage entombed in landfills all over the country. Treasure troves of not so raw materials and potential energy just waiting for the right time to exploit. How close is that time?

With all the hype related to global warming, energy security, protecting our environment and high energy prices what is being done with the garbage crisis? Not a lot!

Garbage is biomass. That warm and fuzzy buzz word implying our salvation from big everything is waiting in our own back yards. It just might be back there in mount Trashmore.

Incinerators are so 20th century. Much more eloquent designs remove virtually all of the nasty pollutants incinerators were known for in the past. Handling the garbage is the main problem. Sorting and separating often becomes a hands on situation that even illegal immigrants avoid. Nasty job! Mechanical mining and separation of garbage is less distasteful. Machines don't gag when they encounter junior's decade old dirty dity. When this valuable un-natural energy source is combined with other clean combustibles, magic happens. Energy from waste, reduced trash leaching into our ground water and fewer unsightly mount Trashmores. Sounds like a plan right? It is and a better plan than many think.

Not only is there energy in them thar trash mountains, there is biofuel! Yep, chemical engineers not only can convert trash to cash, but trash you can pump into you gas tank. So why aren't we doing this? Stupidity is the only thing that pops into my mind. We have to be careful though, we could run into the great trash shortage in the not too distant future. Damn the bad luck!