I've been thinking lately...

[Knight]

About the concept of blasting our waste into space.  Nuclear waste, dump garbage, captured pollutants, used car salesmen, etc.

Why don't the environmentalists press this?

[Netami]

Erm... Space condors?

[Kasarn]

Because it's, like, a million times more expensive to shoot it into space than to just dump it into landfill.

You can only fudge the numbers so far...

[Netami]

Space... rain forests...

[Kasarn]

Space forests?

[superluser]

Erosion, I should think.  If we removed the garbage at the rate that new matter falls into our gravitational well, that might not be too bad, but where would we put it in space?

[Ryudo Lee]

Launch it into the sun?  It is the ultimate incinerator after all.

[Kasarn]

Who cares? Just pick a direction and shoot! pewpewpew!

[RJ]

Leftover Twinkies would make the sun fat and then explode.

[Kasarn]

Why would we launch leftover twinkies into the sun? Those things last forever... FOREVER!!!

[Ryudo Lee]

Leftover Twinkies would make the sun fat and then explode. D:

Okay, well we'll just launch it all into black holes.  Those things can eat and eat and eat and never get fat.... I wish I could do that.

[superluser]

Launch it into the sun?  It is the ultimate incinerator after all.

Far too difficult.  The sun is pretty much the most difficult place to get to in the solar system.  The Earth is going around the sun at between 29 and 30 km/s.  You're going to have to slow the thing down by that amount, and that's no slouch.  Voyager 2 is going at 25 km/s, and it only weighs 800 kg.  Accelerating tons of that to that sort of speed is going to be very expensive.  Wired estimates $20M per ton.

[ITOS]

There wouldn't be much left on Earth after a while...

[Kasarn]

There wouldn't be much left on Earth after a while...

http://qntm.org/destroy
8. Meticulously and systematically deconstructed
At a million tonnes of mass driven out of the Earth's gravity well per second, this would take 189,000,000 years.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

How much of it is useful content, however?

If we throw all that away, it's going to cut down on things like availability of mercury for computer systems, sooner or later.

[xHaZxMaTx]

This is reminding me very much of a certain episode of Futurama.  Probably because they did just that.  Except the giant trash ball ended up coming back.

[Fuyudenki]

Besides the very valid points listed here, another reason for not rocketing our garbage and nuclear waste is that currently, rocket technology is not reliable enough.  Just imagine what would have happened if the Challenger or the Columbia had been carrying a thousand pounds of radioactive payload(plus leaded concrete shielding) when they were destroyed.  You've suddenly got LOTS AND LOTS of radioactive fallout in the upper atmosphere, where it's going to do nasty things to the air, and get spread almost uniformly all over the planet.  Then, throw in the fact that radioactivity tends to be contagious.

Additionally, getting something into orbit is expensive.  Getting it to escape velocity, no matter which direction you choose, makes orbit look like your weekly allowance.

Honestly, it does seem like a good idea on paper.  Millions of people have had it before, including myself(so I'm not just calling you an idiot), it just falls apart when you try to take it beyond that.

My favored landfill replacements currently are the two processes which transform garbage, most of which is organic in some form or another, into high-grade crude oil(alternatively, Syngas.)  As we speak, there's a facility somewhere(I forget where) that is actually purchasing the waste material from a turkey rendering plant, which happens to be right next-door, and turning it into...  I forget exactly what.  It's not gasoline, sadly, but they're making a profit, and the rendering plant gets to make money off their waste, instead of spend money to have it carted away.

[Netami]

Space... whales?

[rabid_fox]

I'm much more in favour of dumping our rubbish on the old Captain Planet animating studio.

[KarlOmega1]

About the concept of blasting our waste into space.  Nuclear waste, dump garbage, captured pollutants, used car salesmen, etc.

Why don't the environmentalists press this?

I'm kinda fond of this Idea...but two of the problems ( as already expressed in this thread) is money to fund the project and the power of the rockets to send it far away...I have had and idea similar where we'd send the trash to the moon in crates sealed with  enough atmosphere and decomposers to cause the stuff to turn into something that can be used to act as a terraforming agent for when mankind decides to colonize the moon or Mars.

[Fuyudenki]

that's really clever, actually.  Mars would be better, the Moon doesn't really have enough gravity to hold much of an atmosphere.

If you focus especially on organic waste, such as plant clippings and animal byproducts, you could probably jump-start a fairly solid ecosystem with that.

Naturally, we're still looking at the cost, power, and failure issues...

[KarlOmega1]

that's really clever, actually.  Mars would be better, the Moon doesn't really have enough gravity to hold much of an atmosphere.

If you focus especially on organic waste, such as plant clippings and animal byproducts, you could probably jump-start a fairly solid ecosystem with that.

Naturally, we're still looking at the cost, power, and failure issues...

Well, the moon can still be used for storage til we can get to Mars with manned spacecraft...that's what I figure.

[Faerie Alex]

Science fiction has already said what will happen if we dump nuclear waste on the moon. It will blow up and launch the moon out of Earth orbit. (Space 1999)

For seriousness, if you were to launch garbage into space, you would need some sort of disposable rocket. We have such things, but seriously, I think some people would rather their trash go to a dump, come what may, rather than paying the big $$/ton to blast it into space. I believe that this will hamper the proposal mots.

[superluser]

If you focus especially on organic waste, such as plant clippings and animal byproducts, you could probably jump-start a fairly solid ecosystem with that.

That would be very entertaining when they attain sentience and attempt to contact us.

Extraterrestrial: Thank you, Earth, for planting the seeds that would lead to life on the planet of Fintlewoodlewix!
President: Where did he say?
Lackey: I think he said Fintlewoodlewix, sir.
President: Isn't that where we dumped our garbage?
Lackey: Yes, sir.
President: Oh, lord.  And now it's talking to us?

[Netami]

Space... glaciers?

[King Of Hearts]

Id rather keep our trash where I can see it... who knows what aliens would do with the information on our consumer habits.

and also... think of the space spotted owls! space humback whales! space White Rhinos!

[Kasarn]

Why, if they had information on our consumer habits they'd come here and sell us things for low, low prices! These prices are out of this galaxy and cannot be beaten!

[King Of Hearts]

yeah but then the local industries will die out and we will have to work in their sweatshops to but their products and expand their empire to the rest of the universe!

Its a conspiracy I tell you! A conspiracy!

[Kasarn]

Corporate takeover, sry

*stamps giant sold notice on the Earth*