Day #4 and Myth #4 from PERCÂ
MYTH 4: WE MUST ACHIEVE TRASH INDEPENDENCE
Numerous commentators contend that each state should achieve “trash independence” by disposing within its borders all of its rubbish. But, as with all voluntary trade, interstate trade in trash raises our wealth as a nation, perhaps by as much as $4 billion. Most of the increased wealth accrues to the citizens of areas importing trash.
Not only is the potential threat posed by modern landfills negligible, but transporting rubbish across state lines has no effect on the environmental impact of its disposal. Moving a ton of trash by truck is no more hazardous than moving a ton of any other commodity.
Actually, most trash is run to the landfill via rail and not tractor/trailer. The vast majority of Washington’s trash goes to Oregon, though Canada and Idaho get their fair share. It is packed into a rail car via a stationary packing unit with enough pressure to liquify any mammal inside of it (mostly just the rats) and then gets tractored to a nearby rail yard where the “cans” are double stacked onto a rail car. The reverse then happens at the other end.
When the “can” finally reaches the landfill, the entire rig, trailer, tractor and all, is backed onto a hydraulic lift. the driver gets out and the truck is lifted into the air to an approximate 60 degree angle until the trash has all fallen out the back of the trailer. The transport has loosened the trash enough at that point that it all falls out. Anything stuck inside is augered and the lift happens again.
I know a couple folks who would probably pay a small sum to be allowed in the tractor when it goes up. I also know that OHSA is onsite in case someone tries it.
Trash is big business because it is basically wholesale in reverse. The home owner or business who is throwing the trash out pays somewhere upwards of $200 a ton to do so (prices get smaller by quantity of tonnage). The collector then has to pay the transfer station per ton and still make enough to cover truck and driver time.
The transfer station has to make enough to cover then having to pay employees and maintain a fleet to take it to the rail yard, and then the rail company to ship it to the landfill, and then the tonnage of the trash to the landfill to take it.
If we were truly running out of landfill space, as was debunked on Monday, the producers of trash, you me and everyone else, would be paying five times what is currently being charge because the supply of space would be running out.
But we’re not because it isn’t. The free market, ladies and gents.
All y’all local to me will be seeing increased trash rates in the next couple years because the city governments, having kept Mother Gaia close to their itty-bitty commie soaked hearts, are mandating that all the trucks that collect the trash, recycle, yardwaste, food waste, etc, must meet 2006 emmissions standards. No pre-2006 trucks will be allowed on the streets after Jan 2009 in an number of cities and other smaller burgs in Western Washington.
I get to take my trash to work. For free. Neener (that is why I bought a truck instead of a Geo Metro to commute in).
So if you take your trash to work, does that mean you are not signed up for trash service at the house? Or is that illegal?
I don’t agree with the statement that “But, as with all voluntary trade, interstate trade in trash raises our wealth as a nation, perhaps by as much as $4 billion.” I’m not an econ major but wouldn’t we have to import trash from another country to increase wealth as a nation (that is, take money from another country)? Right now that money is just flowing from one state to another.
David, in Washington State I do not believe you are required to sign up for garbage service. I have the option of just taking my garbage to the local landfill if I want.
As for the part about “trucks made before 2006 will not be allowed” how long do you think it will take before that crap flows downhill?
They have had similar laws in Australia in the past; I would assume they still are in effect. I remember seeing ships full of used engines being sold dirt cheap when I lived in LA.
Merle
We have a dumpster, every thing goes into it with no recycling – I think our City has trashpickers who do that anyhow. As an Anthropologist and Historian, I see trash as literally that which builds Civilization, the obsession over it by Ecoweenies is a part of their zero-sum game.
The Puget Sound, Portland Metro and the I-5 corridor’s garbage actually goes to Roosevelt, Washington by rail. It is in old containers with roll back tops. The containers are then hauled to the landfill on trucks, dumped and returned to the yard for return by rail. I have actually watched this occur while working on the BNSF line from Vacouver, WA to Pasco, WA as a railroad contractor. I guess the westside prefers the dryside as it’s dump.