Method of treating municipal solid waste offshore: alternative to incineration and landfill

摘要

A method of treating municipal solid waste by first segregating the recyclables, the non-recyclables, and the biodegradable waste. Recyclables are sold to recycling firms. Non-recyclables are reduced by crushing, shredding, grinding or compaction; and sealed airtight in segmented, double-hulled, flat-topped floating vessels that serve as platforms for composting or vermi-composting the biodegradable portion of the municipal waste. Thus, the recyclables are recovered and reused; the biodegradable materials are plowed back into the ecosystem as soil conditioner; and the non-recyclables are reduced and disposed off without the common by-products of incinerators and landfills like dioxins, furans, heavy metals, toxic ashes, greenhouse gases, and leachates polluting air, land, and water resources. The method offers a solution to a long-standing insoluble problem of where to dispose municipal waste, and how to do it without polluting the environment. In the end, the city gets the added benefit of a never-ending, ever-expanding floating real estate.