Materials and Waste

Save the Post Office? 📬

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The post office isn’t going anywhere. The constitution guarantees the post office and federal law requires them to set postal rates equal to their cost. The agency is off budget and doesn’t receive taxpayer money nor should it. If the post office needs money, then it should raise rates. Mail is a lot more expensive than years ago but people are still mailing letters and advertisers are still stuffing my mailbox full constantly.

Honestly, with the amount of mail I send these days, I wouldn’t mind spending a buck or two to mail a letter. Usually letters are at least that valuable to me to mail. Charge advertisers a buck or two too, they clearly can afford it. I rarely send mail, maybe one or two letters a year. But I sure get a lot of junk mail that I’m not interested in reading and it goes straight to the recycling bin. Based on the amount of junk mail I get, I feel like advertisers could pay a heck of a lot more for the amount of trash that is delivered to my mail box daily. I think many weeks the mail delivery is one of my biggest sources of trash.

One thing that always surprises me is how common the elements are in organic chemistry ⚗️

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One thing that always surprises me is how common the elements are in organic chemistry ⚗️

Most organic chemicals are strings or carbon and hydrogen linked together, two of the most common chemicals on earth. Benzene, xylene and toluene are exclusively those compounds. They’re very good solvents often make up a portion of plastics and oil and gas turned into fuel because they burn well. At proper stoimetric ratios when burned all they create is water vapor and carbon dioxide.

Likewise even the famously poison cyanide is just carbon and hydrogen with a nitrogen atom tacked on. That’s why automakers have to limit cyanide emissions and why cigarette smoke contain cyanide – it’s not intentional to poison smokers. Wood smoke and candles also contain cyanide gas – especially with the carbon monoxide rich yellow flames from combustion.

We often think that toxins like benzene, toluene, xylene or even cyanide are man made but often they’re as commonly natural as man made. They’re not elemental toxins like lead or mercury – they’re actually made up from much more common building blocks from the earth.

Aerial surveys show US landfills are major source of methane emissions | Reuters

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Aerial surveys show US landfills are major source of methane emissions | Reuters

WASHINGTON, March 28 (Reuters) - Over half of U.S. landfills observed by aerial surveys are super-emitting sources of methane, according to a new study in the journal Science published on Thursday. The study is the largest assessment to date of methane from landfills, the third-largest source of U.S. methane emissions, and suggests an opportunity to tackle climate change by targeting a prevalent and potent greenhouse gas. It was led by research group Carbon Mapper, with researchers from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Arizona State University, University of Arizona, Scientific Aviation, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Mill Seat Landfill, 1995 vs 2020

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Mill Seat Landfill is owned by Monroe County and operated by Waste Management of New York, LLC. The facility is located on the western edge of Monroe County in the Town of Riga. Mill Seat Landfill was permitted in 1991 and began operation in 1993. In 2002, Monroe County partnered with Waste Management to operate the site. Waste Management is proud to partner with the towns of Riga and Bergen, the villages of Churchville and Bergen, as well as Monroe County.

Notable is how much of this landfill is surrounded by regulated wetlands, as shown in green and yellow on this map.

LEFT - Circa 1995, a few years after opening
RIGHT - Circa 2020, a contemporary aerial photo