How do you throw away an old war ship? Apparently there are a bunch of ships docked around the country suffering from disrepair or simply outdated by newer models (you know how we love to create bigger and better military equipment). Waste News reports that two out-of-commission pieces of a long-abandoned fleet in Virginia are headed for that great recycling plant in the sky. I find it interesting that it takes one corporate contract to construct and another to dismantle the machines of war—to say nothing of the contracts commissioned to repair what we destroy using those machines. Anyway, “ghost fleet” is a cool term for ships in reserve. You gotta hand it to the military, you just can’t beat the lingo.
Photo from Wikipedia
everydaytrash 
Friday, June 15, 2007 at 2:26 pm |
Too often we try the elusive alchemy of garbage to gold for derelict ships…or subway cars…or old tires.
We dump them in the ocean and call them artificial reefs! Abra-cadabra. Nice idea, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and the ocean bottom in some places is now paved with garbage that needs to be removed at great cost. Abra-oooops.
Friday, June 15, 2007 at 3:06 pm |
Fascinating. Thanks, Mark. I’ll be following up with you, sounds like there’s enough here for a garbage reef post!