Eat My Waste

Toronto is really dirty at the moment. (Well, so it the whole world but Toronto is special now). The city workers have gone on strike and everywhere you look, you either see garbage or you see green stinky lines swirling out to your nose and causing you disgust. As much disgust as it caused me as well, I was thinking about recycling and how ineffective it is. There must be a way to get rid of all our garbage fast and give back to Earth like all grateful organisms should.

The solution lies with those awesome bacteria. Research has gone in to find that bacteria can indeed eat away our garbage and create gases that are useful to us. It's a prospect, but as the "really smart and visionary" businessmen aren't really all jumpy about letting their money making machines go, its developing slowly. But how does it actually work?

It works by accelerating the process of decomposition. Municipals store their garbage and waste in dry "tombs" and let the waste die away. The acceleration occurs by balancing the air-liquid quantities of the containers knows as bioreactors. Three types of bioreactors can be configured:
Aerobic- In an aerobic bioreactor, moisture is removed from one layer and piped to liquidsstorage tanks, and re-circulated into the landfill in a controlled manner. Air is injected into the waste mass, using vertical or horizontal wells, to promote aerobic activity and accelerate waste stabilization.
Anaerobic- In anaerobic bioreactors, moisture is re-circulated to obtain optimal moisture levels. Biodegradation here occurs in the absence of oxygen (anaerobically) and produces mostly methane which can be captured to minimize greenhouse gas emissions and for energy projects.
Hybrid (Aerobic-Anaerobic)- The hybrid bioreactor accelerates waste degradation by employing a sequentially alternating aerobic-anaerobic treatment to rapidly degrade organics in the container and collect gas. This sets off much rapid release of gases as well resulting in better efficiency.

Reference

Even though the technology exists and readily available, municipals are not ready to implement this. Maybe some conspiracy working behind it, as with everything else. So much so, liquids are prohibited in landfills of Ohio (read about it here).

So, the smell in Toronto is not going away any time soon. Nor is the world going to get rid of its waste the smart way. One can only hope municipals see that scientists actually know things better than those with fat bellies and as long as they don't, the can eat their waste themselves, and mine too.
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By Kowsheek Mahmood
Ryerson University, Toronto
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The Aftermath Publications, Issue 4
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