Why dont we send all our non-biodegradable and all other waste into outer space?

Question

Why dont we send all our non-biodegradable and all other waste into outer space?

Answer 1

It costs a lot to launch stuff into space.  I once read that it costs a few thousand dollars for each pound you want to send up.  NASA has to be very careful on what is selected to go on the space shuttle.  They can only send up a certain amount of mass.

Answer 2

It will pisss off the Klingons, Gorns, Kzinti, Hydrans, & Thoilans and really set off the Romulans.  it is very expensive to have  space debris & e waste removed from an impulse engine intake.  Dry dock time costs bank!!

Answer 3

There are lots of reasons. The launch could go bad and rain trash back down on the earth. There's already too much junk in near earth orbit which poses a hazard to satellites and astronauts doing space walks.

The main reason is cost. If you use the cheapest vehicle available in 2002, it costs just under $2000 per lb.

In 2005 the US generated about 245.7 million tons of solid waste. Blasting even just half of this into outer space would cost more than four hundred trillion dollars.

Compare this number to the estimated Gross Domestic Product of the US for 2008: $14 trillion. We aren't going to ever come close to being able to afford it.

(100 million tons x 2000lb/ton x $2000/lb)

Answer 4

what use outer space as a big dustbin ?,,we have polluted this planet now you want to contaminate space as well , shame on you we need to clean up our act,not spread our contamination everywhere.

Answer 5

why not just throw it over the fence into the neighbor's yard

Answer 6

Firing spent nuclear rods into the Sun seems to me a simple solution for disposal of nuclear waste, even at the price of $1,000 per pound. After all, what is the Sun but a gigantic nuclear explosion in the first place?  

But memories of the Challenger have me thinking that might not be the brightest thing to do.  I'm not sure we'd want to do that with a few tons of disposable diapers, either.

Answer 7

Yes why not damage even more of the delicate ecosystem by polluting space