I was replacing a bunch of consumables today for my hobbies, and it kind of blew my mind how much chit ive thrown out/gone through just as a single

I change at least 2 guitar string sets a month, and i have 8 guitars. Bass strings every 3-4 months. Just a **** ton of nickel that could be re-melted down, thrown out. Could probably have a few lb blocks of nickel from it.

At least 2-3 bike chains, cassettes, and every part imaginable on my bmx bikes.

And this is just simple chit, not even counting stuff like metal tools, metal car parts, batteries, cookware, random nuts and bolts.

Are peasants going to be mining in old landfills for metals in the year 2200? The mines on earth only go so far, chit is finite. Youd have to up heave massive amounts of wilderness or demolish populated areas to find more.

I should not have eaten the whole edible.

There was an entomologist a while back that said that by observing monarch butterfly populations grow too big and die out was a sign of impending world overpopulation. An economist then called him a retard and made a bet with him and stuck some expensive metals and building materials in a box and said that in 30 years or whatever that the materials would be cheaper and there would be a lot more people on the earth. Sure enough the butterfly watcher was BTFO.

We don't really have a shortage of metal and more and more of it crashes into the world everyday. We also have plenty of carbon and other resources. Basically what it comes down to is that we probably wont need to start digging through landfills anytime soon. We will just dig deeper or use alternative materials like carbon fiber or use better material design like internal lattices etc.

Anyone who says the world is over populated is a fkn retard. We are resourceful and will use what we can and i dont think we are even anywhere close to tapping out on our resources. Worst case scenario we all nuke each other or we just sprawl out into the seas on mushroom islands drinking seawater and eating algae.

Polymers are going to rule the world pretty soon IMO.. they can make plastics and adhesives several times stronger than metal, wood, etc., and in shapes/angles that would be cost prohibitive for metals.

so what? all that shyt breaks down over time

I got a dump trailer I throw all my scrap in

I separate all the good stuff obviously and put it in buckets and take it back separately

we'll be mining asteroids by then

I used to work at that 2nd largest landfill in the United States, I didn't come across metal very often. Forever 21 shopping bags though, they'd be all over the fill.

how long do you think it takes for most stuff to degrade?

as far as electronic waste a lot of it is sold to companies in africa where kids dig through the piles looking for valuable metals

kind of sucks

I follow this youtube channel of this guy who goes around to scrapyards and dumpsters and finds metal chit and then melts it down in his garage ingots and various shapes. Seems like a pretty cool hobby.

The only thing is unless he finds a bunch of copper it seems like a huge waste of time. He posts the values of his melts at the end of each video. Brb taking time searching scrap yard, taking item apart, breaking it down, spending gas $ to run forge, cleaning it off.....brb $7 brick of aluminum.

I don't really know, I'm just an equipment operator, and don't work there anymore. I do know though that the degrading process produces a lot of gas. I think we produced enough electricity to power like a third of l.a. (is been a few years I could be wrong but it was a large number) a day with 9,000 through 10,000 tons of trash a day. We sent all the gas to a neighboring plant on our property through wells. I couldn't tell you through visuals either, because grade drops through both weight and degradation plus everything (I assume) degrades at different speeds. They also never told us how airspace and property was measured, I'm sure it was calculated with things breaking down over time.

This has been a big thing in China for a long time. Rural villagers will have giant piles of circuit boards and extract all the copper and rare Earth metals.

People don't realize where all the raw materials of economic production come from. A lot of it comes from Africa and third world nations.

The raw materials are exported to second world nations where factories can turn them into industrial products like electronics or ironing boards.

Then the first world will purchase it in huge shipping container quantities as home goods and advanced economy production assets like electronics.

Finally, a first world worker will use the advanced product to generate things like software or information products.

That is my job.

To type on a computer made of metals from mines, refined in factories into electronic products, and shipped overseas to the computer retailer.

Everything you use comes from somewhere somehow.

It is mind boggling just to consider how much goes into these finished products everywhere around you.

When you start thinking about it all from a business perspective, it is like this giant machine that turns rocks and oil into websites and mobile apps.