Date: September 29, 2010
Source: News Room
Last week CNBC aired a one-hour documentary entitled "Trash Inc.: The Secret Life of Garbage" that provides a fascinating if lightweight overview of the waste management industry that few outsiders ever see. Reporter Carl Quintanilla takes us on a tour of garbage from New York and Pennsylvania to Nevada, Hawaii and Beijing to learn where it goes, who handles it and what's at stake economically and environmentally. He calls the industry a 21st century goldmine where garbage is an epidemic and an opportunity that is the basis of a $52 billion annual industry. Where waste is not one-size-fits-all and most of it is hauled to America's 2,300 landills, many of which make handsome profits for their operators and further yield energy producing gas. He follows trash from New York City to Pennsylvania, then visits Las Vegas' Apex landfill, the largest in the US and equivalent to 2,000 football fields. Then he travels to Beijing to show the flip side of the story: a city plagued with hundreds of illegal dumps and whose infrastructure is overwhelmed with garbage that is the result of a bourgeoning middle class. The report includes a visit to the great Pacific Garbage Patch but concludes with a focus on recycling and the many opportunities it presents, whether it's plastic bottles being repurposed into textiles or waste food being turned into high-octane gas, noting that 80% of discards are recyclable.
ABOUT THE SHOW
Garbage. It's everywhere — even in the middle of the oceans — and it's pure gold for companies like Waste Management and Republic Services who dominate this $52 billion-a-year industry. From curbside collection by trucks costing $250,000 each, to per-ton tipping fees at landfills, there's money to be made at every point as more than half of the 250 million tons of trash created in the United States each year reaches its final resting place.
At a cost of $1 million per acre to construct, operate and ultimately close in an environmentally feasible method, modern landfills are technological marvels — a far cry from the town dump that still resonates in most people's perceptions. Not only do they make money for their owners, they add millions to the economic wellbeing of the towns that house them. Technologies, such as Landfill Natural Gas and Waste To Energy, are giving garbage a second life, turning trash into power sources and helping to solve mounting problems. It's particularly important in places like Hawaii, where disposal space is an issue, and in China, where land and energy are needed and trash is plentiful.
One sure thing about the garbage business: it's always picking up.
The Landfill
Across the world, we're producing more trash than ever before…nearly a ton per year for every man, woman and child in the U.S. Nearly half of it winds up in landfills and with the arrival of each ton, someone gets paid.
Hawaiian Trash
When you think of Hawaii, trash probably isn't the first thing that comes to mind. But trash is bombarding the shore, turning parts of paradise into a wasteland.
A tour of "the plastic beach: (www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1593780639&play=1)
China
The second largest economy in the world is in the midst of crisis. The country has little infrastructure to deal with the garbage generated by 1.3 billion people.
Tons of Trash
In every town and every city, garbage collectors work to rid the country of trash. The largest sanitation department is in New York City where 12-thousand tons of garbage is generated every day.
How NYC garbage is collected and shipped out-of-state: (www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1593780615&play=1)
The Power of Trash
Today, trash is re-born as an energy source. A $2 billion BMW auto manufacturing plant in South Carolina is powered by trash from a nearby landfill.
How a landfill generates energy to a BMW plant: (www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1593950628&play=1)
To learn more, visit: www.cnbc.com/id/38830389/.
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