[tanker]

I think the organic material idea is good, but not at a distant collection point. If you throw organic material away --> transport to site --> sort it --> delay --> transport to stores --> transport back to garden I think you lose the energy battle.

If you created local dump sites where trash could be sorted and composted, it could work. You also cut down on the amount (and as a result the energy) of trash that gets thrown in the dump. Obvious obstacles are the inability to get people to use the local sites, the initial costs / availability of land, and the resistance to dumps in neighborhoods.

A potential 2nd level effect would be the long term state of trash dumps. At least some dumps are eventually reclaimed. Would reducing or eliminating the organic content prevent that from happening?

[rm_-rf_slash]

It takes a lot of cultural engineering to get people to be that diligent. I'm from an ultra liberal college town and I'll never forget going away to college and spending 15 minutes looking for the compost bin in my freshman dorm. No dice.

Then you have places like Florida, where nobody recycles. Trash is trash. Throw it away and take it to the curb. Even the most elegant and energy-efficient local dump system would go nowhere with a culture that would rather throw away and forget about it, and this is coming from a state that is most vulnerable to climate change yet is full of beach house-owning republicans who think climate change is a hoax.

[soperj]

Very soon here they're not going to accept garbage with compostable material in it. It'll be interesting how big of a push back that gets, but there is definitely ways to make people feel a bit of pain for living a throwaway culture.

[mcculley]

As a Floridian, I'm curious how it works elsewhere. In what ways are systems in other places better? I live in Seminole County and we have recycling bins. It sounds like you think it should go further.

[Vendan]

It varies by far more then on a state to state basis. I also grew up in Florida, and we had 2 bins of recycling, one for plastic/metal, one for paper. Moved to NC, we had just 1 can for all recycling, and then they decided that the recycling wasn't worth it, and stopped picking it up. Now everything goes in the trash, which is rather sad.