Recycled Army Tanks, Bridges, and Subway Cars

Posted on January 30, 2009 by Doug Gunzelmann in Nature & Science

What can you do with entire army tanks left over from the Vietnam War, NYC subway cars, and entire bridges? Strip ‘em, clean ‘em, and sink ‘em!

Headed by the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, New York City subway cars from the MTA system are being dumped in the Atlantic ocean as artificial reefs for fish habitats. The 19 ton cars, 1600 planned thus far, are meticulously cleaned. All material that could float is removed, any hydraulic fluid oil, grease, and contaminants are cleared, as well as anything that would obstruct the smooth flow of water. The majority of the sunken material is stainless steel and dumped 16 miles out and 80ft down, off Slaughter Beach Delaware, in hopes to stabilize or increase resident fish populations.

In South Carolina armored personnel carriers, and many thousands of tons of concrete from destroyed bridges, has been sunk to increase fish structure along the shores. Barges and sunken ships also provide a great habitat for fish and plant life that is being rapidly depleted world wide. These structures all are cleaned before being deployed to the briny depths and subsequently covered in plant and animal life within 6 months to a year.

Once submerged, the subway cars turn a barren stretch of ocean floor into a bountiful oasis, carpeted in sea grasses, walled thick with blue mussels and sponges, and teeming with black sea bass and tautog.

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Tags:

environmental, fish, materials, ocean, recycle

8 Responses to “ Recycled Army Tanks, Bridges, and Subway Cars ”

Uncle B

30. Jan, 2009

Assholes! assholes! assholes! You take metal, requiring huge amounts of OIL, to discover, mine, refine and form, and you dump this uber-valuable resource flow into lakes and oceans - While Chinese and Bangladeshi children scavenge old ships and computers for metal, risking their lives for a few bites of food! Only a sickenly-rich American could promote this kind of carnage as “green”. Come to Canada, and watch the men die in the mines, silicoses comes quickly to mind, doing some of the most dangerous work in the world, before you publish shit like this again! You need hard and fast, up your ass, reality checking education, in the bottom of a cold wet mine, with pick and shovel in hand and sweat on your brow, before you condone such foolish carnage. You need a lifetime of substandard wages, poor living conditions and poorer food, to teach you world economics! You need the (GRD) great republican depression, now upon you, to sharpen your sense of values and right your ideas on costs! You have lived far too long, high on the hog, and the GRD is your comeuppance Yankee Doodle!

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Josh the Happy

30. Jan, 2009

What as ass, this has nothing to do with economics, fuck you for being a poor canuck. So yeah we got it better, but some of us are trying to save the fucking world one step at a time. If you got a problem with bring poor bitch about it at the right place dumbass,

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Doug Gunzelmann

30. Jan, 2009

In an ideal world this metal would not have been wasted, it would be sent to those in need, to be recycled in such a way so that new resources wouldn’t have to be mined, which costs people their lives and the earth such trauma.

However, as with so many other parts of our global society, the ideal isn’t always practical.

I am guessing this was a cheaper and or more profitable way for the companies of interest to move their waste. Is it ideal? No. Will people continue to mine the earth for resources? Of course. But does it have a benefit on the environment in its new role? Yes.

Perhaps in the confines of this situation this was the greenest solution possible, or that the parties of interest were willing to agree upon (as opposed to a landfill per se). That’s what we have to deal with, and if people are willing to make small movements towards more environmentally responsible decisions, then this is at least progress.

Btw, swearing up and down on a blog post, also not ideal.

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Qing

31. Jan, 2009

Hahahah~~ usually i see “green-up-grader” as a really innovative and truly green inspiration….

if putting metal trash in ocean can be eco-friendly, then may be i should start putting my old furniture, construction waste, even my glass bottles to the sea so that the fishes can have even better habitat~~!

I think my plastic bottles can be the newest “apartment” for indivdual fish family~! no more fear to the big fish~! only hide in the bottle will be the perfect shelter~!

do u think the fishes want extra food also?? sure i can put my organic waste, down to the sea for the dearest fishes to eat~~! They also eat napkins, rite?

Let me take care of it~!! i am not charging for “making better environment for the fish”~!!

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blanco sinks

01. Jun, 2009

Seriously, find a different place to rant and scream. If you are going to fume over something like this than fume over all the people who throw away leftover food, which im sure entails millions of people.

I think the company dumping those tanks could sell them to collectors, especially if they spent a little money restoring them. I know of a guy here in Utah that just bought a tank to play around with, so im sure there are others like him out there.
-Jack

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Global Spirit

09. Jul, 2009

Dearest Uncle B- Nice,
While, I wholeheartedly understand your sentiments, your anger dilutes the importance of your message. I have to admit that the american people are extremely ignorant, self absorbed and naive. They are pacified with idols who intoxicate them with songs and dances, while they are losing their future right before their eyes. It will get far worse before they wake up. The corporate media is spreading garbage from social landfills inciting racial tensions, creating divisions, instead of waking people up to their utterly tragic economic predicament and how they can change this by united action. They have the power of they can use in the area of working, consumption and voting and using their spirits and minds. They want to leave by the sword for which they spent trillions of dollars for decades, now they are about to taste what their own hands have wrought.

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