Finding a sustainable future at the dump

The Boston Globe
By Jeffrey E. Surma
January 12, 2009

THE ECONOMIC CRISIS has now hit the bottom of the barrel - the trash barrel, that is.

If we were to look at a garbage landfill from 200 feet away, most of us would see what appears to be a landscape of unidentifiable trash. If we dared to stand in the landfill, we would be able to identify familiar solid-waste products such as paper, cardboard, metal cans, plastic and glass bottles, scrap metal, and a host of other items. But what if we were able to take a really close look - down to the atomic level? We would see trillions of molecules made up of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, the building blocks of precious fuel to run our cars, heat our homes, and generate electricity. We would see trillions of molecules of inorganic chemicals that could be transformed into building and construction materials to save energy and preserve our natural resources.

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