Why Can't We Throw Our Trash Into Space?

Humans produce over 2 billion tonnes of trash each year, and that number isn’t slowing down anytime soon. This number is expected to increase to 3.4 billion tonnes by 2050. As the amount of global waste increases, some people have proposed an unconventional solution: throw our trash into space. This may seem like a simple solution to an exponential problem, but barriers such as cost, debris, and the possibility of launch failure prevent launching trash into space from being a feasible solution. 

The biggest reason why we can’t throw our trash into space is cost. A NASA space launch to Low Earth Orbit costs 1.5 billion dollars to launch 27500 kg. The United States produces over 290 million tonnes of waste each year. It would cost NASA well over trillions of dollars to launch that amount of trash into space. There are two caveats. The launch wouldn’t be going into deep space but only Low Earth Orbit. Things in Low Earth Orbit eventually come back to Earth. To launch all of our trash further into space would cost even more money. The second caveat is that this wouldn’t just happen one time. The United States produces 290 million tonnes of waste each year, so NASA would be spending over trillions of dollars every single year to get rid of our trash. According to the World Bank, America’s GDP is just over 27 trillion dollars. Even if all of America’s GDP was spent on launching all of our trash into space, we still would not have enough money to do so. 

The barrier of cost also eliminates throwing our trash into the sun. The last time humans were on the moon was the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, and we have not been back since because going to the moon is insanely expensive. The Apollo Program was a project of the United States from 1961 to 1972. One of the most famous goals of the Program was bringing humans to the moon and then returning them safely to Earth. The United States spent over 318 billion dollars in modern money on the Apollo Project. The sun is almost 400 times farther away from the Earth than the moon. If humans haven’t been to the moon in over 50 years because it is so expensive, imagine how much it would cost to get to the sun? Well, the Parker Solar Probe is a spacecraft created by NASA to observe the sun up close. It was the first spacecraft to fly through the sun’s upper atmosphere. The Parker Solar Probe cost 1.5 billion dollars in 2018. It would be even more expensive when adjusted for modern inflation. Even in 2018, the Probe was too expensive. NASA’s 2018 budget for the Solar Probe and other heliophysics was 678 million dollars. The Probe was over two times the budget. One launch already goes over budget. Enough launches to get rid of the 290 million tonnes of trash that the United States produces each year is unfathomable.  

Another reason why this solution isn’t feasible is because of the possibility of launch failure. The Soyuz spacecraft is the most reliable space launch system of all time with a 97% success rate. That means about 3% of those launches fail. Even if it was affordable to send all of the world’s trash, that’s 3% of about 2 billion tonnes that doesn’t make it to space and instead falls back to Earth. That amounts to 60 million tonnes of trash that fall back to Earth, and that is only if the Soyuz system is used and if the amount of global waste doesn’t increase. Remember, the amount of global waste is expected to increase to 3.4 billion tonnes in 25 years, so instead of 60 million tonnes failing to get to space, 102 million tonnes would fail to reach space. When spacecrafts blow up, that debris is spread across the Earth’s environment. Millions of tonnes of trash coming back to Earth yearly would pose a major risk to oceans and wetlands, food and water supply, and many people's lives. 

Launch failure also comes with an environmental cost. The process of rockets launching causes a lot of emissions to be released into the atmosphere. These emissions can erode the ozone layer and cause harm to the atmosphere. It would take countless launches to get 2 billion tonnes of waste into space and every single launch would release some form of emissions. The Earth is already getting warmer, increasing space launches to this magnitude would only speed up that process. Throwing all of our trash into space is not environmentally feasible. 

Launching trash into space presents the problem of debris. Low Earth Orbit already has millions of debris, and there are no international laws surrounding clean up. To clean up the amount of debris that is already in space would cost billions of dollars. When you add the amount of debris that would be caused by launching trash into space, we’re now talking about an unfathomable amount of money. Another problem with debris is that it is a potential hazard to space crafts, satellites, and astronauts. Debris in space can move seven times faster than a bullet. Even small pieces of debris can cause damage to satellites in space, larger pieces can completely destroy satellites and even kill astronauts. As more space launches take place, more debris ends up in Earth’s orbit which only presents an even greater risk to future launches. 

While launching trash into space may initially seem like a quick solution to a growing problem, it truly isn’t feasible. The astronomical costs, risk of launch failure, environmental risk, and danger of debris make the idea of sending trash into space impossible.