Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'

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Containeria
A new, high tech nation.
  (+6, -3)
(+6, -3)
  [vote for,
against]


With the growth of nationalism, at a time when refugee flows are approaching record levels, there's a need for more living space.

The obvious solution is to aggregate all of the floating waste we've dumped into the ocean, along with rogue shipping containers and fishing net floats, then add a stable platform to the top. Contain it in formed hulls of lightweight, autoclaved concrete, so it can't contaminate the seawater around it.

Add gas turbines, to run on the methane generate and Viola! A potentially mobile nation city, with the ability to grow as needed, taking care of our inability to properly manage our own trash disposal.

This polyglot nation could become a floating Singapore, or Hong Kong, overnight. It's a nation of refugees, for refugees, by refugees.

*Inspired by [Vernon]'s floating pile idea.


UnaBubba, Jul 18 2005

Spectacle Island - Boston Harbor http://www.massturn...viro_spectacle.html
well at least there's a precedent. [Zimmy, Jul 18 2005]

[link]






       That fishbone was mine, (no I'm not the autoboner). I just felt that it was beneath you.
Yes; I think that trash in the oceans should be eliminated but turning it into a floating and possibly unstable island just doesn't feel "right", ya know?
  

       Not necessarily unstable. If it is herded together well enough, and contained in Hebel (autoclaved concrete) barriers then it could be a perfectly good use for garbage. Most garbage could be recycled into its original components.   

       From there it's a simple matter to use clean combustion and fermentation techniques to generate power to catalyse seawater and run high energy sintering and rendering plants from hydrogen power.   

       One plant could be moored offshore from each major trash collection point.   

       Keep them outside the 12-mile limit and they could become independent island states.   

       I'm unsure how it's beneath me, as it promotes a feasible solution to ocean pollution and a feasible solution to refugee placement issues.

UnaBubba, Jul 19 2005
  

       With the addition of barriers to keep the garbage from degrading in seawater, (not that it wouldn’t have anyway) I would have voted differently, although I, (wonder of wonders), now have the chance to vote negatively twice on the same idea. I've never had that happen before. Do you think it's a glitch that should be reported?   

       I like the idea of floating island countries, but somehow base them on garbage makes it unpleasant. Are you sure this wouldn't be a focus for diseases? And the technical solution for containing such big areas of garbage seems complicated. Not to mention having a big mass loose in the ocean. Wouldn't it eventually colide with a continent?   

       Perhaps I didn't completely grasp your idea.

PauloSargaco, Jul 19 2005
  

       They could certainly be equipped to steer themselves.

UnaBubba, Jul 19 2005
  

       //And the technical solution for containing such big areas of garbage seems complicated// Obligatory bun, then.   

       I guess that the solution to our waste problems is always going to be complicated. Not enough people care about it.

UnaBubba, Jul 19 2005
  

       //I guess that the solution to our waste problems is always going to be complicated.// - The usual solution is very simple: "Put it somewhere else."

wagster, Jul 19 2005
  

       Just to be slightly pedantic it's not 'Viola', which is an instrument, it's 'voila', the French word.

froglet, Jul 20 2005
  

       You haven't been here long enough, [froglet]. On the HB it's always Viola. Sorry.

UnaBubba, Jul 20 2005
  
      
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