system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Star Wars] Why do big ships such as the Avenger need to dump garbage into space?

In Episode V the Avenger dumps garbage before jumping to hyperspace. To my knowledge, this is the only time we see it, despite many other ships jumping at different times. Leaving a potential continuity issue aside, my main question is why would they do this? What garbage could they not recycle or reuse that they must dump it in space? Would this be garbage they compacted? Do ships in the Star Trek universe perhaps possess different technology virtually eliminating waste since they don't seem to have this issue?
gpt
It's not that they couldn't recycle or reuse their garbage, it's that there is no incentive to. They don't have replicators like Star Trek so breaking down their refuse is a costly endeavor, and the accountants probably decided that hauling garbage all around the galaxy and eventually having to haul it to a recycling plant was more costly than just dumping it in interstellar space. The logistics of simply throwing everything out an airlock are hard to beat.