Maybe unpopular opinion:
Sort it, burn what you can for electricity, dump rest into deep ocean.
Tonga is running out of space for more than 30k abandoned cars
11–20 of 78 posts
Re: Tonga is running out of space for more than 30k abandoned cars
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
Islands with a total population of 100k. Lack of demand and probably no machinery to melt and process steel, expensive electricity/power to do that kind of processing, lack of other inputs, and a population without the expertise. Given how remote and small it is it's probably not economic to do anything about the problem.
No harbor to ship it?
Probably costs a lot to ship scrap metal out of there. Scrap goes from the US to China cheaply because the boats would be going back empty otherwise.
Re: Tonga is running out of space for more than 30k abandoned cars
#13Is it not economically viable to melt the cars for steel? Or is there not enough demand for steel in Tonga that the steel would need to be shipped abroad anyways?
The main island of Tonga is 100 mi² with 75k people on it. It's an island that's basically an accumulated coral reef; there's no natural resources you can get from mining it. And it's 2000 miles from the nearest continental landmass.
There is no heavy industry on the island, and the economy isn't really capable of supporting heavy industry.
Re: Tonga is running out of space for more than 30k abandoned cars
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
Islands with a total population of 100k. Lack of demand and probably no machinery to melt and process steel, expensive electricity/power to do that kind of processing, lack of other inputs, and a population without the expertise. Given how remote and small it is it's probably not economic to do anything about the problem.
No harbor to ship it?
This is why they had to get subsidies from Japan to ship the cars back out. There's demand for cars, but now "someone" needs to deal with the broken ones at end of life. "Someone" has to eat the negative externality of shipping the dead cars off-island.
Re: Tonga is running out of space for more than 30k abandoned cars
#15Is it not economically viable to melt the cars for steel? Or is there not enough demand for steel in Tonga that the steel would need to be shipped abroad anyways?
It's an island chain of 100,000 people, so no. Plus, electricity is extremely expensive, importing the fuel to melt down steel would be crazy.
> Plus, electricity is extremely expensive
I was wondering how much, and, wow:
> The December 2022 review indicated that the electricity tariff would decrease from $1.19 per kWh to $1.01 per kWh, effective from the 1st of January 2023.
Re: Tonga is running out of space for more than 30k abandoned cars
#16So many of the problems we've made seem like they could be great fixed by less people instead of more each year. Imagine the next population doubling and all that cost and suffering it will bring.
Damn all those people living their own lives and doing what fulfills them instead of what you want!
Re: Tonga is running out of space for more than 30k abandoned cars
#17I hadn't realised just how small Tonga's land area is. Imagine a square 30km x 30km. It's smaller than that (747 square km).
But this table of countries ranked by population densities shows Tonga is not even close to the most densely populated countries (Tonga is about 65th of about 200 countries): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependen...
Re: Tonga is running out of space for more than 30k abandoned cars
#18So many of the problems we've made seem like they could be great fixed by less people instead of more each year. Imagine the next population doubling and all that cost and suffering it will bring.
The problem is too many cars, not too many people.
Re: Tonga is running out of space for more than 30k abandoned cars
#19Same solution as most problems: import tax should include cost of getting rid of the car when you’re done. Then getting rid of a car is free. Ship it off the island at your expense and you get a refund.
Yes, came for the same comment. Add an import tax of 2x whatever it takes to ship a car out. Each new car that comes in, two cars go out.
Isn't this the Mount Everest trash solution as well? You have to carry out more trash than you carried in
Re: Tonga is running out of space for more than 30k abandoned cars
#20Maybe unpopular opinion: Sort it, burn what you can for electricity, dump rest into deep ocean.
This is actually the popular opinion, world wide. It's what we've been doing for decades. And it's terrible.
The really unpopular opinion is "let's generate less trash and reuse everything we can, plus slap a recycling tax on everything".