[QUOTE=happywaffle]
There’s a scene at the beginning of “Back to the Future 2” when they land the DeLorean in an alleyway. Next to the car there’s piles of trash, including a big compressed bundle of discarded CDs, with a big “SILICON” label slapped on the side.
At the time, I thought it was an amusing futuristic touch. Sure enough, they were correct.
[/QUOTE]
Correct? Since when have CDs contained silicon?
[QUOTE=happywaffle]
There’s a scene at the beginning of “Back to the Future 2” when they land the DeLorean in an alleyway. Next to the car there’s piles of trash, including a big compressed bundle of discarded CDs, with a big “SILICON” label slapped on the side.
[/QUOTE]
Actually, it was LaserDiscs. And the “silicon” was “silicone” as in rejected breast implants.
I think that’s mentioned in the commentary by Bob Gale.
[QUOTE=CookingWithGas]
Well, what happened to all those vinyl LPs?
[/QUOTE]
Well, I work in a library and I can tell you what people tried to do with them. During most of the 1990s, I would get one or two phone calls a month from people wanting to donate all of their LPs to our library. They would usually blather on about how “most of this stuff has never come out on CD” (not true in most cases) and then say that all they wanted in return was a statement of the collection’s dollar value typed on library letterhead, so they could get a nice fat tax deduction. When I explained that (a) the IRS didn’t allow me to appraise donations and (b) we weren’t collecting LPs anymore, they’d get mad and hang up on me. So I guess they ended up in landfills. 
[QUOTE=joechip236]
So I guess they ended up in landfills.
[/QUOTE]
Nah, they got sold at yard sales to people who drone on all night about how much better vinyl is than CDs and make you listen to 2 notes out of a song and then do the same thing with another album, then another.
[QUOTE=robby]
I can show you many, many landfills that are properly managed.
Clay liners are rarely used any more. Most lined landfills being constructed today have a double layer of 60-mil polyethylene (HDPE) geomembrane with a leak detection system installed between the layers.
And while contractors may indeed try to get away with anything they can, you would be amazed at the required testing for installation of the geomembrane. The geomembrane comes in 20-foot wide rolls that weigh several tons. The panels are then heat-welded together. Every single weld on the whole landfill is non-destructively tested. Every 500 feet of weld is destructively tested and patched. Any failed seams are cut out and redone. When complete, the whole landfill is filled with water to check for leakage. Finally, the baseliner is covered with 1-2 feet of sand to protect the membrane.
Years later, when the landfill is full, it is covered with a geomembrane cap, a layer of sand, and a layer of topsoil.
Landfills filled with municipal solid waste do produce methane as the waste decomposes. This gas is vented off or captured and burned, sometimes for generators. If not properly handled, it can lead to problems, such as fires.
On the other hand, landfills are also used to dispose of ash resulting from burning waste in waste-to-energy incinerator plants, and those landfills produce no gas whatsoever.
Modern landfills in the U.S. are very tightly regulated. They bear little resemblance to the “dumps” of the past.
My comments above notwithstanding, I agree with your sentiments here. The waste has to go somewhere, though, so we may as well dispose of it in the most environmentally responsible manner that we can.
–robby, P.E. (Environmental Engineer)
[/QUOTE]
What he said - word for word. I’m involved with the geomembrane part of the landfill, and we test the holy hell out of it as well BEFORE it goes to site.
Shmoozing hat [on / robby, which firm do you work for? I may actually know you ! /off]
[QUOTE=TheLoadedDog]
Throw away a PC, a car battery or two, and you’ve probably already beaten your CD collection in terms of environmental harm and/or landfill space.
[/QUOTE]
I used to feel very guilty about my trash going into landfills (I live in a college town where recycling is very popular). That was until the Waste Management corporation started complaining that our county landfill was “underperforming” and was threatening to close it! Now I don’t worry so much about it.
[QUOTE=TheLoadedDog]
How many CDs do you own?
Even if it’s in the hundreds or thousands, how big a pile really would they make? Then compare this to all the other crap you’re going to have to throw away. Even if five per cent of your weekly household waste is non-biodegradable, remember that’s weekly, but it’s taken you since 1982 to collect all those CDs. Throw away a PC, a car battery or two, and you’ve probably already beaten your CD collection in terms of environmental harm and/or landfill space.
[/QUOTE]
I’m well aware that CDs and DVDs would be a mere drop in the ocean compared to the general waste of our information society. I’ve seen the pictures of those computer dumps in China (no cite, unfortunately).
I was simply curious if there was a proper procedure or indeed if anyone had even thought about what to do with the waste discs - it seems like we’re going to have a lot more of them to throw away than we did vinyl LPs or cassettes. It was something I’d never considered, myself. Sadly it seems like burying them is still the best way to deal with it.
[QUOTE=TheLoadedDog]
I don’t think it’ll be a big deal.
How many CDs do you own?
Even if it’s in the hundreds or thousands, how big a pile really would they make? Then compare this to all the other crap you’re going to have to throw away. Even if five per cent of your weekly household waste is non-biodegradable, remember that’s weekly, but it’s taken you since 1982 to collect all those CDs. Throw away a PC, a car battery or two, and you’ve probably already beaten your CD collection in terms of environmental harm and/or landfill space.
[/QUOTE]
I had hundreds of thousands of CDs to recycle (350,000 or so) and I can tell you that it’s a mighty big heap of plastic - over 5500lbs, enough to cover most of a long flatbed truck to a depth of 3-4 feet (I’ve got photos). In my life I have undoubtedly generated/tossed out more garbage than that but nowadays I recognize that just because I’m doing “X” damage to the environment that doesn’t mean that “2X” is acceptable.
The only thing this planet has too much of is people. Solve that problem and waste management is fixed too, along with much more stuff that is killing humans as a species and the planet as a carrier of life.