io9
Garbage disposal factories are the unsung heroes of the giant machine world. With everybody excited about Pixar's upcoming garbage robot flick Wall-E, it's time to meet some real-life garbage machines. Some are glistening high tech towers, like this waste disposal/power plant in Vienna. Others are surprisingly low-tech. Check out our gallery of fantastic and grossomatic waste disposal factories — and the workers who tend them — from around the world.
In Salaise-sur-Sanne, southern France, the Tredi factory is packed with high tech purification systems that handle extreme toxic cleanups like the one in 2006 in Ivory Coast that involved 6,000 tons of toxic waste and killed 10 people. 
Where does all your waste plastic from bottles and wrappers and tupperware go? To this factory in Qingzhou City, Shandong Province, China. Tons of plastic gets melted down and converted into threads and grain-shaped pieces. The results are sold to factories as raw materials. 
People help feed the garbage machines, too. Plastic straws are laid out in vast bales and piles to dry in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Once dried, they'll be shipped to a plastic recycling factory. Bangladesh has a near 100 percent recycling rate for its waste, and has one of the most efficient plastic recycling systems in the world. 
Dealing with waste can be very low-tech and industrial. In Ghana, workers turn waste into fuel for the local palm oil plant. Here you can see them scooping it into a steam-driven machine that powers the factory. 
The lowest-tech waste disposal job falls to these Palestinian workers, who use sledgehammers to break up the remains of a bombed factory. The cement and metals will be recycled. 
Images via Getty.
Comments
Wall-E will do better.
But does Wall-E do recycling?
@Annalee Newitz: Wall-E, what does't he do?
@JoeyTheHobo: I don't think he melts tons of plastic into threads. But maybe he does!
I don't think those are straws in Bangladesh. It looks like shredded plastic.
what about those ship yards, in india i think where all the locals tear down old oiltankers etc and recycle the metal, thats pretty cool.
@Sihanouk-s-Poodle: Yeah, it does actually. The photographer called them "straws," but maybe he meant "straw." It would make sense to call this shredded plastic straw -- certainly what it looks like.
Reading this, I couldn't help but think of Soylent Green.
Er, I guess I'm the only one that worries about the condition of those workers...
"In Ghana, workers turn waste into fuel for the local palm oil plant. Here you can see them scooping it into a steam-driven machine that powers the factory."
More like, "indentured servants/slaves" are forced to work in horrible conditions no one should ever endure... that guy looks like he hasn't had enough food to eat for a long time.
@EnochLight: Yup, working with waste is pretty hellish. That's what I thought was so amazing about these images. It really captures the horror of these working conditions.
The moral of the story, boys and girls, is that recycling is good, but reducing so we don't have to recycle is better. I like the OSHA approved fan blowing the carcinogens away from the recycling lady in 2nd pic
Yeah, I'm not sure that Shandong factory is actually reducing pollution... At least the plastic was relatively inert before being cycled through what looks like an 18th century foundry.
-Kle.
I work with human waste, his name is James and he doesn't do shit all day except clip his toenails and play with pencil shavings.
And check out a company in California called ECO2, they recycle used plastic by blasting it with C02, instead of water, thus leaving no harmful or toxic byproduct. Yay California!
Garbage is a big business but is polluting our planet worth all the money in the world?
[www.i-guide.ro]
Nice, I work about 200m away from the facility in Vienna. This facility also heatens a few thousand households in vienna through garbage melting (long distance heating).
@zarchitect: I doubt OSHA has any say in what goes on in the factory in China. And I'll bet the fan is there to help cool the plastic. Any toxic fume avoidance is merely an oversight.
We send China garbage and they send us back DVD players and stylish clothes? I love international trade!!!
@Annalee Newitz: Sorry, Ms. Editor, I guess you shouldn't be expected to edit cutlines.
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