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Comment by dylan604 | Hacker News Reader

It could be a book keeping thing. Sometimes, it works out better by the pencil pushers if something is written off as a loss. Consider the expense of having to send a barge/ship to the island to transport it back from the island to somewhere else. Then they could attempt to sell it. Would that sale be profitable?

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Even if that were the case, wouldn't whoever ended up owning it make a profit by sending it back for scrapping/parting out?

you have to do the math on shipping costs vs how much can be made. i'd venture its not profitable in a reasonable amount of time. you then have to have someone skilled to part it out. store the pieces. line up buyers. all of that comes at an expense.

So, how much does shipping a ton 3 miles by water cost? The scrap value of a vehicle is maybe $200/ton (more if valuable parts can be salvaged.)

Shipping by truck in the US costs somewhere around $0.10/ton-mile.

In most ports that would be worth it as there’s already established commerce routes that can transport vehicles. But there’s no vehicle-carrying ferry going to hydra. So you’d need to arrange one especially, which probably would cost a ton, certainly several thousands and I’d guess much more

Or, once sufficient junk has accumulated, a for-purpose boat could come over and transport the lot. Also, there must already be ways of getting garbage and construction debris out.

I suspect the best approach would be a boat that would transport the stuff not three miles, but a longer distance to where scrap could be more easily handled. This would amortize loading/unloading costs over more miles. I would not be at all surprised if such centralized waste handling ports already existed; there are lots of islands there generating a constant stream of refuse.

They haven't done it yet, which would indicate that it's complicated, where is the nearest scrap dealer that would take the stuff? The Eastern Peloponnese is thinly populated, the nearest town is Nauplion with ~ 20 k inhabitants, else there is always Athens. Now you have an interagency coordination problem, Hydra town council would have to get together with its counterpart in Athens, acquire the title, collect them, charter a ferry and lowbed truck at the destination and assemble a crew get rid of the junk. Until sufficient tourists complain it's not going to happen.

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