Popular Science
Why Can’t We Launch Earth’s Garbage Into the Sun?
If you’ve spent any time on Earth recently, you might have noticed a lot of trash piling up, with less and less space to put it. So why can’t we just shoot it into the sun and burn it up in space? Well, there’s a lot more to it: Mainly, gravity and money. Hosted by:…
Popular Science
The Radioactive “Miracle Water” That Killed Its Believers
If you lived in the 1920s, you might have found a pamphlet advertising “the greatest therapeutic force known to mankind.” Radithor was a tiny bottle of clear, colorless water that claimed to cure acne, anemia, heart disease, poison ivy, impotence, asthma, and any other malady you could imagine. There was only one side effect: DEATH.…
Popular Science
What’s Really Underneath This Massive, Noisy Siberian Crater?
In a remote area of the Siberian tundra, there’s a place that locals call ‘The Gateway to Hell.’ In the summer, its peaceful waterfall sounds are interrupted by the booms and crashes of falling earth. And while it‘s not actually a portal to another dimension, the Batagay Crater (technically a “megaslump”) is an unsettling mark…
Popular Science
Man accidentally gains control of 7,000 robot vacuums
Sammy Azdoufal just wanted to steer his DJI Romo with a gaming controller. Read the full story on Popular Science:
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@Matt_Silverman
February 28, 2026 at 11:51 am
this video is so trashy – in a good way!
@Nooticus
February 28, 2026 at 11:52 am
No explanation of what happened to Kevin. Are all your subscribers just going to be left in the dark? What a joke.
@Nmethyltransferase
February 28, 2026 at 11:54 am
Not even a Type 1 on the Kardashev scale. Can’t even launch our garbage into the sun!
@Orthologist
February 28, 2026 at 11:55 am
3 months for a 3 minute video?
@ahaburchak
February 28, 2026 at 11:58 am
I for one do not want trash raining back down on us. Deal with it on Earth!
@marissawolff8491
February 28, 2026 at 12:12 pm
Well, I have been tempted to launch Kanye West into the sun. When I actually get to that, I’ll let you know if this science experiment is possible or not.
@HazelsStory-d7v
February 28, 2026 at 1:08 pm
Can’t we get energy by burning our waste here on Earth????
@JohnDCrafton
February 28, 2026 at 6:22 pm
Ideally most our burnable waste should be recycled, either as material for other products or as compost.
@It.Just.B
February 28, 2026 at 9:42 pm
Yeah for sure, but burning something doesnt get rid of it, it just becomes something less manageable like carbon dioxide and other chemicals in the air
@DJCryptoStix
February 28, 2026 at 1:47 pm
This was awful writing who approved this.
@EyesOfByes
February 28, 2026 at 2:32 pm
There is not enough room in my a**
@Aloooy108
February 28, 2026 at 3:56 pm
Where is Kevin?
@Digital_Apparition
February 28, 2026 at 4:22 pm
where kevin?
@kuhluhOG
February 28, 2026 at 5:10 pm
The only kind of garbage where this would be economically feasible would be high grade nuclear waste.
But since rockets sometimes have accidents, that may not be a good idea since that would end up distributing the waste over a wide area.
@LLEHYER
February 28, 2026 at 6:52 pm
What about volcanoes?
@TheCohenPazo
February 28, 2026 at 8:56 pm
Then we still gotta deal with all of the toxic gases, that’s a problem too
@popularscience
March 2, 2026 at 4:36 pm
We actually answered that very question back in 2021:
@iiiiii-w8h
February 28, 2026 at 7:43 pm
That was a really bad explanation. Didn’t even mention delta V
@Nipah.Auauau
February 28, 2026 at 10:29 pm
Planetes is really solid btw
@AliHSyed
February 28, 2026 at 11:01 pm
hellloooo worlddd
@zeev
February 28, 2026 at 11:52 pm
one sentence , don’t need 3 minutes. this is why people looking for ‘straight information’ shoudln’t come to youtube.
too much delta V , KISS. — keep it simple silly.
@ps8437
March 1, 2026 at 9:20 am
at the end of earth, all its trash is ending up in the sun anyways 🤷
@RealMTBAddict
March 3, 2026 at 11:48 pm
So are you
@TheDudeWithNoAttitude
March 5, 2026 at 3:14 pm
@RealMTBAddict your mom too
@RealMTBAddict
March 5, 2026 at 5:43 pm
So are you.
@trevormugalu3797
March 1, 2026 at 3:50 pm
So basically, there is no law of physics that states we can not throw our trash into the giant thermonuclear reactor above our heads.
The only reason we are not doing so is because it’s expensive???? I mean come on guys, money has value simply because we’ve all agreed it does.
@jahallhall
March 3, 2026 at 10:56 pm
Money is time+resources, we have better and more needed projects to spend our “money ” on
@agsdedluxferre2955
March 4, 2026 at 6:36 pm
Environmentalists are part of the rich man’s game. They off load the bill into working class people and brain wash them so they fight for their side.
But never once are the people who use jets daily, refuse to spend the money to remove the waste, destroy whole forests without planting a single thing, massive industrial complexes which send all sorts of fuels into the air, and more at the hands of the wealthy made to watch how much waste they put into the air.
It’s always the common folk who’s thumb print is so small that have to suffer the removal of services, affordable cars, loss of electric power, have their acs be targeted, and more simply to appease environmental politics while they continue to destroy the planet 10 times over the damages the common folk do.
All because they can’t be bothered to hold people with billions/millions of dollars accountable in investing the money to fix the problems in the first place.
@nacluv-gs2ju
March 4, 2026 at 10:03 pm
100% if it was really a big deal as much as they wanted to think then no price would be too high to kee the earth clean
@TheDudeWithNoAttitude
March 5, 2026 at 3:55 pm
has anyone bothered to ask Elon???
@adrianaa3059
March 1, 2026 at 10:23 pm
just send it to india
I DARE anyone there to notice and I dare you to say I’m wrong
(if you never met actual indians your opinion is utterly worthless, don’t bother)
@QuinnKallisti
March 2, 2026 at 2:14 am
why would you want to permanently destroy all that material resource anyway. This sounds like something a kid would ask….
@IWarpI
March 2, 2026 at 10:46 am
Not to mention how it is very difficult to send anything into the inner sol system and or close/into the sun because one would have to slow right down from the earths angular momentum and relative velocity to the sun to even get near it. It requires complex orbital mechanics and energy use.
@popularscience
March 2, 2026 at 4:41 pm
Hey, this is Annie, Editor-in-Chief of Popular Science! The channel has been on hiatus for a bit, but we’re excited to start bringing you new videos from the same people who work on all the fascinating stories about our weird world that you can find on popsci.com. Thanks for joining us!
@luzcorral1905
March 15, 2026 at 10:34 am
Gracias 💖
@Chazulu2
March 2, 2026 at 8:14 pm
Similarly, manufacturing consumer products in space won’t be able to benefit from sending recycling up… Most aluminum cans, for example, are recycled, and so could never feasibly be manufactured in space.
@shaicohen2
March 3, 2026 at 2:01 am
FINE! back to the drawing board… 😂
@KnightOfChrist1978
March 3, 2026 at 5:15 am
They need to burn it for energy
@KnightOfChrist1978
March 3, 2026 at 5:15 am
All of it not just some
@R4t10n4L
March 3, 2026 at 9:52 am
orbital trash moves VERY quickly, faster than any bullet or missile near Earth’s surface
@bradfordreddingii359
March 3, 2026 at 10:29 am
we spend trillions of dollars on everything else; sounds like scientists are overthinking the problem. then take care of the trash above the atmosphere first…and find solutions instead of well we can’t do it because of this or that.
@Orbitaldeath
March 3, 2026 at 11:05 am
Uhhh use spin launch?? Then coordinate launches to avoid collisions.
@michelhays
March 3, 2026 at 3:34 pm
Bigger problem: the Earth’s finite resources. What’s trash today might be an absolutely necessary resource tomorrow, and if you toss it all in the sun, there’s no getting it back. Even if we incinerate stuff here, the law of conservation of mass means it’s effectively still available to use, just in a different form. (I also have this problem with all the space junk)
@TheDudeWithNoAttitude
March 5, 2026 at 3:54 pm
Asteroid mining…oh, and strip the other planets of resources too. You know, like the show The Expanse.
@jahallhall
March 3, 2026 at 11:03 pm
What a ridiculous article. I remember when you had scientific ideas and theories that genuinely challenged the mind. Now it’s just low-brow garbage. How about a story about real science. I’ll even take psuedo-science if it has compelling evidence.
@TheDudeWithNoAttitude
March 5, 2026 at 4:01 pm
The trends I’ve been seeing is “Say that there is a problem, you people should be ashamed, mic drop, then walk off.”
@RealMTBAddict
March 3, 2026 at 11:47 pm
Trash would get burned up in the atmosphere. That’s the truth. We could launch trash into lower orbit and have it burn up over the ocean. Small batches so it would all burn up. It’s not that complicated.
@calgram
March 4, 2026 at 7:26 pm
Yeah, and burning creates fumes-toxic fumes probably. Who wants to add that level of pollution to what we’ve already done to our atmosphere?!
@RealMTBAddict
March 4, 2026 at 8:02 pm
@calgramnot that high up
@jekyle4074
March 3, 2026 at 11:47 pm
Yes, I’m sure colonizing the moon and Mars will be much easier and cheaper than shooting trash into the sun.
@KelvinDiaz-x3l
March 4, 2026 at 7:08 pm
Wouldn’t it be a better idea to send the trash to Venus? Venus isn’t that far away from us and Venus is highly corrosive
@TheDudeWithNoAttitude
March 5, 2026 at 3:57 pm
Look at you coming up with solutions. Venus wouldn’t be as far as the sun and it could vaporize the trash.
@roberthornyak5875
March 4, 2026 at 10:42 pm
Pretty sure they have some sort of launch mechanism to launch satellites. Probably could launch trash or better yet work on a space elevator.
@saviormz
March 5, 2026 at 5:42 am
I disagree on the why’s this video presents.
@TheDudeWithNoAttitude
March 5, 2026 at 3:22 pm
The lesson I learned from Futurama is that it will be them people’s problem in the next 1000 years. *dust hands off*
@TheDudeWithNoAttitude
March 5, 2026 at 3:52 pm
I’ve seen so many talks and attempts to the garbage problem for more than 40 years now. Since then, we’ve made some progress—things like recycling programs, talk of a circular economy, and some government policies aimed at reducing waste. But we’re still facing a lot of the same problems.
A big issue is the waste that can’t be recycled or is no longer recyclable. On top of that, there’s often no real financial incentive for organizations or entire countries to make meaningful changes. Companies frequently move production to places with looser regulations and cheaper labor, which just shifts the environmental impact somewhere else.
Another challenge is how divided people are on the issue. You see countless posts, news stories, blogs, and protests about the trash problem, but not many clear, practical plans for solving it. Often the loudest voices get the most attention, while the people with workable ideas don’t get heard.
The first real step, in my opinion, is reducing how much waste we create in the first place. That requires a shift in global mindset and culture. Easier said than done, but without that shift, any technical solution will only go so far.
Companies also need incentives to do the right thing. If new regulations only hurt their bottom line without offering better alternatives or economic incentives, many will simply avoid those rules or move production elsewhere. Policies have to make sustainable production, packaging, and shipping financially worthwhile, not just mandatory.
As for the idea of throwing trash into volcanoes: it sounds dramatic, but it raises a lot of questions. Volcanoes already release huge amounts of gases and particles. Dumping garbage into them would likely just add more pollution and create new environmental problems rather than solving the old ones.
At the end of the day, we still have to deal with the trash we already have. Whether that’s better landfills, new technologies that can safely break down waste, or new ways to reuse materials, we need solutions that are actually scalable.
From the videos and research I’ve seen, there are some promising ideas:
– Prevent, reuse, and recycle as the first line of defense
– Making producers responsible for the waste their products create
– Rewarding better product and packaging design
– Universal waste collection and separating organic waste
– Landfill taxes and methane controls to discourage cheap dumping
– Global coordination and standards
But the biggest factor may be global alignment. If a few countries or companies do the right thing while others ignore it, the problem doesn’t really go away—it just moves somewhere else.
Solving the waste problem isn’t going to come from a single dramatic solution like rockets, volcanoes, or sci-fi “death rays.” It’s probably going to come from a lot of smaller changes working together across the world.
I do like the death ray idea, though…
@danielgonzales7710
March 7, 2026 at 4:39 pm
Not a great video. She waffles back and forth randomly between the “How?” and the “Should we?”. I think she should answer and focus on the feasibility question first and then can touch on the ethical question(s) at the end.
@wasabipeas5139
March 8, 2026 at 2:59 pm
Where. Is. Kevin. ☹️
@ruthtremblay4240
March 10, 2026 at 8:19 am
Alright so at least why don’t they send the trash of space in trajectory for the Sun. Then all of those satellites will be able to burn away
@vodiak
April 2, 2026 at 10:14 am
2 bits of bad science here: we’re not running out of space for garbage, and running into space junk is not very likely.