Hacker News Reader

Aluminum and steel are easy to extract from the waste stream, run the waste stream past a magnet to separate the ferrous metals, then run the waste stream past an eddy current separator to separate out the aluminum/copper/zinc.

Recycling household waste is dumb and a massive waste of resources. Burning the trash after extracting the metal would be optimal.

View on HN

Isn't burying in a landfill better than burning considering the carbon sequestration considerations of burning what will likely be plastic products? At least with burying we are a little bit closer to putting the oil energy back under the surface of the earth vs having it around in the atmosphere.

If you capture the heat from the burning, e.g. to generate electricity, then that can save burning oil/gas/coal instead.

Furthermore, the landfill will usually also generate gasses like methane, which need to be burned off too.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com