The Business Of Trash | CNBC Marathon

CNBC Marathon explores the economics of waste management and how the United States is solving its trash problem.

In 2019, the North American waste management market reached $208 billion. Thanks to advancements in modern chemistry and support from municipal governments, landfills have seen astonishing financial success in recent years.

Burning waste to make energy is a $10 billion industry in the U.S., and the fastest growing part of the business is waste from big companies like Amazon, Subaru, Quest Diagnostics and American Airlines. They’re part of a growing corporate movement toward “zero landfill” as pressure mounts to reach sustainability requirements.

It’s estimated that every year, millions of tons of plastic enter the ocean through rivers, and as global waste generation increases, the problem is poised to worsen. But a host of companies from Baltimore, Maryland to Bengaluru, India are working on the issue, developing novel methods to capture trash from rivers before it reaches the ocean.

Dozens of electric vehicles are scheduled to debut in the next few years and over 300 million electric vehicles are expected to be on the world’s roads by 2030. The lifetime for an EV battery is estimated to be 12 to 15 years in moderate climates, but that doesn't mean the batteries end up in landfills when they die.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:48 How Trash Makes Money In The U.S. (Published July 2021)
15:59 How Amazon, American Airlines And Subaru Burn Waste To Make Energy (Published May 2022)
32:24 How To Clean Up The World’s Most Polluted Rivers (Published August 2022)
46:16 Where Do EV Batteries Go When They Die? (Published March 2023)

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The Business Of Trash | CNBC Marathon

[NFTwizardz]

Great video, i started on a garbage truck and now i operate a transfer station here in Ontario Canada at a local city dump processing recycling materials that we ship out to be sorted. Its nice to see more details of the career choice i have chosen! I love my job and the company i work for pays and takes care of us well!

[LearnToWin]

Another person’s trash is another person treasure! I love the model of converting trash into renewable energy…it is a better option than putting it in landfills!

[ScrapPalletMan]

As a professional trash picker dumpster diver it's saddens me at the rate we are wasting

[chow-chihuang]

Thank you for this comprehensive compilation of different aspects of waste sources and management. You interviewed many of the most active players in the fields you covered, and I am glad many of them mentioned the best method of managing waste is to change how we consume goods and services, reducing or eliminating it at the source. I’d like you to put out another report on this aspect, including what is sometimes called extended producer responsibility schemes which incentivize/punish manufacturers on what materials they put out and also helps pay for recovery, recycling and disposal (waste-to-energy, landfill).

Regarding the point about Sweden “overbuilding” waste-to-energy (WTE) capacity, I think it was intentional. They emptied their landfills in roughly a decade (typically reduces volume by 90%, sometimes more) and now import waste from other countries as a source of income and energy. While not optimal, it is better than simply landfilling or open-air burning, which occurs way too often, whether on purpose or by accident.

A higher-temperature version, sometimes called plasma waste conversion, is also useful for destroying toxic compounds as they rip molecules apart by converting them into plasma. It doesn’t eliminate elemental toxins, which have to be captured and bound into inert compounds, and can lead to formation of dioxins like other forms of incineration, but there are established means to capture and contain those. It’s the least profitable method of incineration, but I consider it a form of waste management and hazardous material destruction rather than energy production.

[davidboaz]

This one dropped just in time for Lunch break!

[CameronFussner]

My greatest concern is how to recover from all these economic and global troubles and stay afloat especially with the political power tussle going on in US.

[sidali]

Gotta love documentaries like these thanks cnbc we need to adress this issue in a productive manner

[paulheydarian]

This is so depressing. 😢
We humans MUST get a grip over this huge problem. There's really no higher priority. It's a major health issue because of its direct impact on our food & water.

[MrPenguinsfan]

I used to have to drive by a landfill to a work site. It did smell and the roads were always dirty as could be. Plastic bags were stuck all over the fences and the land around it.

[ninjanerdstudent]

I studied this topic in my sustainability course in college. Our city has three large landfills 60 miles out in each direction, and all three will be full to capacity in just 2 decades. It will be a bigger problem in the near future.

[fireprint_incinerator]

Congratulations on your new achievement,
Li from China, manufacturer of low-temperature magnetic waste thermal decomposition device

[Dudeguymansir]

I live next to a radioactive dumping site that’s near a landfill that’s burning underground.

God Bless STL 😢

[gavinspiby]

Humanity is storing up problems for our children

[ninjanerdstudent]

I can't help but imagine how waste management was completed in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome compared to modern times.

[KatrienGeathers]

Your tips help me become a better trader. Thank you very much for your time and effort!

[bobroberts]

Help the situation by NEVER throwing metal in the trash. This includes things like old vacuum cleaners as they have copper that can be recycled. Well unless you have a car battery, these need to be tossed in the ocean to recharge the electric eels.

[seriousblakk]

Too many humans on earth... this is gross seeing all of it together like that. And we aren't really handling it well at all

[jideshittu]

Thanks so much for this piece! Very enlightening and insightful. As an advocate of a sustainable and healthy environment I'm encouraged that their is hope for our environment and offcourse for humanity.❤

[irinatihonova]

Great video! Your new trading strategy seems really interesting. I appreciate the detailed explanation and examples you provided. It's always exciting to see innovative approaches to trading that can potentially increase profits. I'm definitely going to give it a try and see how it works for me. Keep up the great work and thank you for sharing your knowledge with us!

[introvertsrock]

1:34
This definitely true
While i ♻️ 80% of my 'trash', i know a handful of ppl who only ♻️ 5%

And some places haven't even tried to get businesses, apartment complexes to recycle