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This system would be designed for dry organic trash such as paper, grass clippings, and the like. It might be used for plastics too, I'm not sure. It would be an air-conveying pipeline, installed right next to the sewer pipe. It may seem absurd with all the blowers and other equipment it would take,
but remember that most sewer systems already have this many machines.
A way to put trash into the system would be composed of an auger-style reducer, located as often as civil engineers deem necessary, that discharges right into the air system. I'd say you would need one of these per neighborhood, for things like refrigerator boxes and pieces of plywood. Other ways would include an input right inside the house, for smaller items, and the lawnmower could have a long flexible hose that hooked into its discharge, just like a bag. Of course the system would need some defenses built in, such as metal detectors, high-explosives detectors, to name a few.
Of course to save power, the blowers wouldn't run all the time. There should be an intelligent control system set up that turns them on and off in a way similar to an electric train track; only the pipes with things in them would be on. To save power even more, there could be holding reservoirs every now and then, like a sewer system, but this might not be cost effective as it would probably also require a feed of some sorts, in order to not overload the blowers.
I suppose all the lines would come together at the local landfill. Since just about all the material would be wood-based, it could easily be used for waste-to-energy incineration, possibly powering the system that feeds it.
There are a few ways to fund this service. One is to do it through regular taxing, and the other is to do it through metering, like the other utility charges. The latter would be measured in pounds, or kilograms. The neighborhood shredder/depository could operate off a PIN code, credit card, or bill/coin acceptor. Of course, if waste-to-energy was used, it might be able to be a free service.
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I'm voting for it, 'cause it's cool, but most cities undergrounds are already pretty much full. |
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Instead of a blower, a conveyor system might be more energy efficient. Sensors on the doors could tell when anything was dropped into an access point, and it could be moved to a collection area for a few houses, and when that reaches a certain weight, it can be moved to a larger collection area and so on, so that there doesn't have to be constant blowing or conveying. Hopefully there's a way to keep it from jamming all the time when people drop forks in there and stuff, but I don't know. |
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what [xicl] said, conveyor belts would be much more practicable. |
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Just like rubbish/garbage shutes, people would put everything down them and they would always be blocked. Sorry - |
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"Hopefully there's a way to keep it from jamming all the time when people drop forks in there and stuff, but I don't know." |
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Did I NOT say anything in the idea about self defenses, including, but not limited to, metal detectors, high-explosives detectors. Whenever something was placed in there that didn't belong, the system wouldn't move it until it was removed. All input points inside a house would have an airlock-type system for safety. The shredder simply wouldn't start up. The blowers would be zoned, they wouldn't be on all the time. As for a conveyor belt, this would require one to dig up the whole thing in order to service it. Blowers and other things could be recessed into manholes. The blowers have big tolerances, and can handle a large amount of things. They would probably have trouble with metal all the time, but the occasional piece shouldn't hurt them. If the interlock system was used, they would almost never have that problem. |
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The original idea seems a bit impractical. I think you have a gem in one of your examples though. The lawnmover with the hose attachment sounds feasible. |
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Whole-house vacuum systems already exist, just add some inlets on the outside of the house for yard clippings. Or maybe a separate system so your house doesn't end up smelling like freshly mowed grass. |
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Unless you like that sort of thing |
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[hoopdy] It's funny you should mention that, that's where the idea came from in the first place. Grass is so bulky, and smells so bad while it's decomposing, though, I want it to go somewhere other than my house. If it's gonna be collected at your house, you might as well just use a bag. |
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"Did I NOT say anything in the idea about self defenses, including, but not limited to, metal detectors, high-explosives detectors." |
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I just meant little, plastic forks that would possibly slip under the belt. |
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Who would want to purposely break a sewer, though? That's just mean. And not particularly effective as an act of terrorism. |
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Unless it backs up. Or acts as a common ventilation system to disperse whatever. |
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The biggest flaw I see would be at the landfill, which would have to keep changing locations every so often. |
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[RayfordSteele] That's one reason I suggested waste-to-energy inceneration. However, no pipes last forever, and I think that by the time the landfill had to move, it would be about time to replace the pipes. Somebody: How long do underground pipes usually last, and what's the age of a normal landfill? |
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About the collection points, I think the best place would be in some of the shredders themselves. You wouldn't need a collection point in every single one, though. The shredders would already be there, plus they're a large collecting place. They should probably be recessed into the ground. If you put a lid on them, you wouldn't need a cyclone at every exhaust point. That way, people could just place large trash in them at will and the system would run the batch whenever it got full. The waste would be easier on the fans too as it would be shredded more than once while going to the collection point. Now that I think about it, a hammermill would probably be better than an auger-style one because augers tend to tightly pack their output. A hammermill just requires more service. |
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Great way to dispose of a body. |
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There would be no end of trouble when people put explosives and big pieces of metal in this thing. Also, I am not sure I understand how it could be used as a lawnmower - it seems like it would be very unwieldy to push around the lawn, especially when there are explosives periodically going off inside it. |
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Seems like it'd be easy to lock up the system, though. |
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Who left the lid off the dry trash sewer? And where's fido? Here boy! |
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Yah, yah, I was just hoping to push you over the edge, [foggy]. The application you envision is for the suburbs, where people generate lawn clippings etc. If you are generating yard waste it means you have yards, which means things are spread out and uncongested, which makes a tube system more expensive and truck pickup less expensive. |
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I envision this setup for very populous, congested areas, like Manhattan or Tokyo. It would be an extension of apartment style trash chutes to a citywide system. Anything could go in. Stuff would be too wet to blow, and so would be moved by a screw-type system. The entire tunnel would be threaded, but trash would be in a tube-within-a-tube, preventing the trash from gumming up the threads. Trash receptacles are slowly moved along by a screw drive at the back. |
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The main advantage: get trash off the street and avoid cumbersome truck-based pickup. |
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