Super Duper Garbage Zapper

This is really quite amazing.

A company called Startech Environmental has developed a fully functioning machine that zaps garbage with a plasma ray, breaking down all molecular bonds into their elemental components. The Plasma Converter (pictured here) burns at roughly three times the heat of the sun's surface, so it's a little like tossing your trash into the sun to vaporize it. The only byproducts are a molten glass, which can be used in household tiles or asphalt, and a hydrogen/carbon monoxide gas that can be burned to fuel the machine and produce excess electricity.

The machines aren't cheap--$250 million a pop--but just one can take care of all the garbage and trash generated by a city of 1 million, while also producing several megawatts of electricity (or, it can be configured to produce hydrogen for fuel cells and other uses). Landfill be-gone!

What's amazing about the Plasma Converter is that it works on anything except nuclear waste. Any organic material, metal, concrete, plastic, even toxic substances such as dioxin, can be fed into the Converter and quickly be broken down into simple elemental gases. Literally, garbage can be fed directly from a trash truck into the converter, which can handle 2000 tons a day. (St. Lucie County Florida is building an even larger one that will handle 2000 tons of new trash each day while also eating up 1000 tons of trash in an existing landfill and generating electricity for local residents.

Talk about a clean technology!