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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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For all intents and purposes, field garbology in New York City has been made a criminal offense under the Guilliani administration. Several years ago, the courts here ruled that refuse left out for collection by the NYC Dept. of Sanitation is *not* ownerless, but the property of that Department. Persons not authorized by the DS to collect its garbage are subject to arrest for theft. [trulykon]
IP
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I've akshully done some work with the premier researcher in the field of garbology (Bill Rathje by name, professor at U of Arizona). He has taken core samples of solid waste landfills, using an enormous coring tool to take samples about 5 feet across down to depths of 90-100 feet. He has pulled up completely intact heads of lettuce that were in the same layer as newspapers from the 50's and 60's - so the landfill had preserved something as fragile and prone to decay (at least in my fridge) as a head of lettuce for decades! A very brief piece with some of the surprising results of this is here: http://www.acnatsci.org/erd/ea/landfills.html
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Persons not authorized by the DPS to collect its garbage are subject to arrest for theft.
Wull, duh! Ya wanna steal sumpin ya jus trow it out wit da gobbitch an nen come back later an piggitup.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
There's a place just below (Weekly Themes) to discuss the current words. I harp on this only because said place is underused, and I'm trying to be, you know, ecumenical an' all, in the interest of oniomaniacs and garbargomaniacs alike....*
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*It makes reading easier für moi, anyway, if threads are more equally distributed [thinking-of-yet-another-way-to-revive- AWAD-in-Schools e]
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379 |
Interesting--is there any more more archeological?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Archaeologists seem to revel in finding rubbish dumps. Here in Zild they get down to counting the number of seashells they find in Maori middens. There was a book written, the name of which I cannot remember (surprise, surprise) in which archaeologists from the 25th century dig up rubbish dumps from the 20th century and speculate on what the various items they found were used for. Toilet seats as objets-d'art. Initially intriguing, but ultimately boring. Cor! 
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Feb 2001
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I read either the same or a similar one. Did yours have a motel thought of as a tomb?
jimthedog
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veteran
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veteran
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In Baltimore, garbage men (dustmen to Brits) are called "mawmbacks". This is because one of them is always behind the truck calling to the driver, "'Mawm back!, 'mawm back!"
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old hand
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old hand
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In Columbus, Ohio there is an old garbage dump that they sealed up with soil and vegetation. Some type of pump was placed above it and they're using the carbon monoxide emissions as a power source. Seems to me that more cities should do this.
In the same vein, Cincinnati has a humongous land fill that has been named Mt. Rumpke (Rumpke is the trash/recycling company). I've not seen the dump personally, but apparently it's quite big - big enough that they could seal it up and use it as a ski slope (with fake snow) and get energy at the same time!
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carbon monoxide emissions as a power source
It's more likely methane, and this is a very good thing to be doing. Not only does it turn a waste into a resource, but it prevents emissions of methane to the atmosphere, which is important in terms of mitigating global warming. Although there's a lot less methane in the atmosphere than CO2 (the most commonly cited greenhouse gas) methane's impact on a per-unit basis is much, much greater. That is, a mole of methane has about 4 times the impact (IIRC) on atmospheric heat retention than a mole of CO2. So keeping it from getting out is a good thing, and more and more landfills are taking this approach. Now we just need to figure out what to do about cow farts, which are actually a surprisingly significant source of atmospheric methane.
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