Aye, well that's "the rub" as they say.
I would imagine though that the life span of one of these vortex devices would be orders of magnitude longer then a grinder. No moving parts for one. And the objects inside are spinning around so contact with the sides is glancing blows instead of hitting at right angle vectors to the wall. A lot would depend on what you are putting in it too. It sounds like they are talking mostly about organic and semi-organic waste. I would think you would probably prefer to sort out metals and other hard objects to be recycled via melting.
Don't think of this as a universal dispos-all machine. Just think of this thing as a replacement for the burning or landfill that is the typical end result of the organic portion of the waste stream.
But sure in the end, like anything else it's gonna wear out. Someday the pyramids will be sand dunes too.
[ April 26, 2004, 17:37: Message edited by: geoschmo ]