It's No Garbage Strike - Man Keeps a Year's Worth of Trash

The San Francisco Chronicle ^ | December 30, 2007 | By Kelly Zito

[JACKRUSSELL]

When Ari Derfel gets a glass of water at a restaurant, the first thing he thinks about is carrying the plastic straw home.

Likewise with every tissue, cash register receipt and burrito wrapper that wafts into his life.

Derfel, a 35-year-old Berkeley catering company owner, is in the 12th month of saving all his trash.

The project started out as an experiment - to see just how much waste one person generates in a year (in Derfel's case, about 96 cubic feet). But as the months rolled by and Derfel's refuse overflowed from his kitchen pantry and into bins in the living room, the project grew from novelty into an environmental statement, a source of much discussion and debate, and a three-dimensional diary of Derfel's consumption habits (not to mention a source of many, many jokes).

Sometime soon, Derfel hopes to transfer custody of the detritus to an artist who will use it to create a piece about the way Americans deal with their castoffs.

"When we throw something away, what does 'away' mean?" said Derfel. "There's no such thing as 'away.' "

Rather, the trash bin is simply one stop in the life cycle of each item, Derfel says. Each thing we throw away has been produced somewhere, shipped to a store, entered the home, and then is sent somewhere else - using up water, oil and land.

Though recycling and composting are on the rise nationwide, our growing economy and population base mean the United States is still generating hundreds of millions of tons of waste each year - the majority of which ends up in landfills. And those items we do recycle are often sent across the globe before ending back on store shelves here, according to experts......

[Thermalseeker]

This is nothing. I can show you a house near Hazard, KY, that has every scrap of garbage ever generated in the owner’s lifetime right out back of the house. This pile has to be 40’ deep in the ravine behind this guy’s house.....mighty fragrant, too.....

[HangnJudge]

Does he flush his toilet?

Each person produces about 500 lit. of urine and 50 kg of feces per year.

This can contaminate minimum 15 m³ water per year without adequate handling

http://www.unep.or.jp/ietc/Publications/techpublications/TechPub-11/6-5.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sewage_treatment

[webschooner]

Let me guess, Leftists, correct?

[sazerac]

This has nothing to do with global warming or environmental wackos. Every American should be concerned about the enormous amount of waste we are producing. Nobody should be called names for reminding us.

[svcw]

When I was a kid we had incineratotrs, we burned on Tuesdays and Fridays just garbage because on Wednesday the collectors picked up glass, tin and stuff that did not burn well, oh ya and the ashes from the incinerator.
Ah the good old days.

[sd-joe]

Now you would be hassled for polluting the air. Sigh.

[sd-joe]

Why?

[Mr Ramsbotham]

Thanks for the stats. I wasn’t aware that human waste was such a problem! I mean, once it’s down the hopper it’s gone forever, right? :-)

[gibsosa]

UGGHHHH... Another smug, fashionable “foodie” Leftie... If any man I knew wrote like that, I would consider him gender confused.

[Dustbunny]

Only on the left coast.

With that smile he is obviously proud of himself.

Wonder who will buy the art piece when it is finished. Maybe Berkley will buy it and use it in front of the court building.

[Dustbunny]

We do that now except that we bury the ashes and what did not burn in a pit we have dug every few years.

[baltoga]

With the media attention I think he should sell his “Beserkeley trash” on eBay.

[tbw2]

There is a new plasma incinerator that can burn a lot of stuff regular incinerators couldn’t - and break the stuff down to a molecular level, reducing the toxic fumes produced by regular incinerators.

[HangnJudge]

There is a new plasma incinerator that can burn a lot of stuff regular incinerators couldn’t - and break the stuff down to a molecular level, reducing the toxic fumes produced by regular incinerators.

http://www.recoveredenergy.com/faq.html#how

Instead of landfilling or incinerating MSW, this new facility, using a Plasma Gasification process, converts all types of waste streams (gas, liquid or solid) into a fuel gas composed primarily of carbon monoxide, hydrogen, nitrogen and water. This fuel gas is then used to generate electrical power. The process is very efficient. 99.9% of the waste that is input into the system is converted to energy or other salable products. Typical gasification or incineration plants generate up to 30% residual waste that must be hauled to a landfill. The Thermal Transformation process uses a high temperature (up to 8,000 degrees Fahrenheit.) plasma arc technology to "gasify" carbon based materials into an energy rich fuel gas with a BTU value about 1/3 that of natural gas. The fuel gas is then cleaned and cooled so that it can be used in a gas turbine to generate electricity. Non carbon based material is primarily transformed into vitrified glass or recyclable metal.

[IllumiNaughtyByNature]

So this turd-hat lives among his trash and then goes to work at a CATERING COMPANY he owns?

WTF?

[Blue Highway]

I bet his house smells good. He should bottle the air and sell it for roach repellant.

Good one Leni, haha.

[4yearlurker]

I wonder if he recycles any food in his catering business?

[ThomasThomas]

Berkeley has trash police and will go after him for hording.

[Scotsman will be Free]

There is an incinerator on the outskirts of a city 20 miles away from me that burns up virtually everything, and generates electricity while doing so. I don’t know what kind it is, but folks show up with their pickup truck loads of crap, and dump it at the facility. The facility makes money from the dump charges and makes money from the electricity they generate.

[MinuteGal]

Thank you.....recycling the smelly air, you know.

Leni