On Thu, 4 Dec 2008 11:16:05 -0500, "Proctologically Violated©®"
wrote:

Awl --

Been watching History channel, and the scuttling of big-assed ships.
Also, railroads, NYC Subways, go thru big expense to properly prep/clean old
cars, to dump them in the ocean for coral reefs, etc.

Now, if coral reefs are that important, OK.....

But, if not, why go through all the expense to dump scrap in the ocean, when
these mega-tons of steel could be recycled? With much less expense and
chemical waste ito prep/cleaning, etc.?

Esp. on military ships, where armor can be 15" thick!!
And on railroad cars, where just *one* wheel is 700++ lbs of high quality
alloy steel. Usually 8 wheels (4 wheels per "truck", two trucks per car),
but sometimes more.

Just curious.


Labor costs of disassembly.

And consumable costs, torch fuel/oxy etc all add to the cost factor.

It takes a damned long time even with a big crew to cut a ship down to
bite sized pieces. There is a village in India where the main
industry is ship wrecking, mostly done for pennies an hour per
coolie..and there are an army of them. And they die like flies in the
process.

You cant do that in the 1st world.

Gunner