I haven’t ever run a water treatment plant and I’m suspecting you haven’t either.
They’re probably designed, like semiautomated residential waste collection, to operate within certain parameters that are relatively inscrutable to outsiders.
And honestly I’ll trust the person who decides to work in wastewater reclamation over anybody operating a data center.
“It’s already the garbage man’s job to take away my trash, why can’t I throw away my old batteries and fluorescent bulbs?”
Mercury from fluorescent bulbs isn’t normal trash and can’t be cleaned. We’re talking about bacteria.
Your analogy would be better if they were dumping heavy metals or viruses. They’re not.
I haven’t ever run a water treatment plant and I’m suspecting you haven’t either.
They’re probably designed, like semiautomated residential waste collection, to operate within certain parameters that are relatively inscrutable to outsiders. And honestly I’ll trust the person who decides to work in wastewater reclamation over anybody operating a data center.