All about that waste

Greetings, all four of my followers.

Today you're in for a special treat. This morning after breakfast I boarded a coach bus with my fellow travelers. Instead of venturing to a typical tourist attraction, we opted for something a little bit different, and a lot bit smellier.
After about a twenty minute drive we arrived at our first destination – a paper recycling plant. At this site, about half of Sardinia's paper waste arrives throughout the year. This paper is from both residential and commercial sources. When it arrives, it is checked for quality before it is sent through the "pulper" for initial cleaning. Afterwards, it is run through a couple more cleaning apparatuses to remove the finer contaminants. It is then ready to rolled into useable paper. The pictures below show how this waste is collected, as well as a before and after shot of the recycled paper. It was quite interesting to see the entire process involved including the waste and final product.
That being said, it was time to escape the glorious odor of sustainability and eat lunch. We exited the bus about a five minutes drive away from the plant. Most of the group ordered sandwiches from a small cafe, while a smarted faction wondered a bit further. I was part of the latter. We found a pizzeria where a wonderful, elderly Italian women served us. I enjoyed a virgin martini while squinting – desperately trying to be the essence of cool, and, for the most part, succeeding.
The two hours came and went, and it was time to move on to the composting plant. Here organic waste was processed to form a fertilizer or soil that could be used for agricultural purposes. This process takes a total of 3 months, whereas it might occur over a few years naturally. The plant itself is a non-profit organization. It costs them 120 euros to create a ton of compost, however they sell it for only 2 euro per ton. The cost of operations is handled by taxes collected by the government. Any non-organic waste found in the original bulk is sent to the nearby incinerator.
Our journey finished with a tour of the incinerator. Here waste is fed into a 13 meter long drum that completes one rotation in about 5-10 minutes. Inside the drum, the temperature reaches about 1300 degrees celsius (about 2372 degrees Fahrenheit). The incinerator produces 35 megawatts of energy that is sold to the public, and also produces its own energy used to run the plant. Although it got a bit smelly, it was very interesting to see first hand some of the processes used in sustainability.