Keeping your habitat on the track

From: "Tom Tucker (Olympia)"
To:
Sent: Friday, December 01, 2000 4:09 AM
Subject: Re: [spacesettlers] Keeping your habitat on the track

[snikt]
> Perhaps we can only achieve 99 or 95%, I don't know since I have yet to
see
> a well researched study on this topic.

Most likely. No recycling is perfect. The "100%" that I used in my previous
message was just a manner of speaking.

[snikt]
> What concerns do you have for recycling - any particular product or
> compound?
>

I just think that recycling should not be dogmatically applied to everything
when you live in a lifeless environment. On Earth, we simply have no place
to drop our garbage without eliminating completely the possibility of
ecological problems, and therefore recycling usually is the best option.
(Although even this concept is sometimes contested. I remember some studies
showing that simply burying garbage is cheaper - even considering
environmental costs - than recycling, for most types of trash.) In space,
however, you have a vast range of possibilities of getting rid of your trash
without using recycling and at the same time without causing *any* damage to
the internal biosphere of your habitat. For example: you can simply dump
everything that cannot be recycled (or that has a recycling process that is
not economically advantageous) in a dirtball orbiting your habitat; the
biosphere inside the habitat will continue to live happily and healthily,
thanks, and you'll spend less money/effort/time/energy...

> Regards,
>

Regards,

> Tom
[snikt]

Lucio Coelho