Was Rome exporting its trash to Egypt as an early example of recycling?
score:11
It was definitely ballast as @pluckedkiwi suggested. Many ships provisioning Rome had to carry ballast on their return trips for want of a more profitable cargo. It was usually sand - Rome had a guild of subuarii (lit. "sandmen") for this purpose. I have also read volcanic ash being used for reselling at construction sites on the route to make concrete.
When emptied of their cargo of grain, the freighters on the major return route to Alexandria from Rome required ballast, and it would have made more sense to fill the hold with pozzolanic ash ballast that could be sold upon arrival, rather than with more-or-less useless sand or river stones.
Brandon, Christopher J., et al. Building for Eternity: the history and technology of Roman concrete engineering in the sea. Oxbow Books, 2014.
Building rubble were certainly heavy enough to function as ballast, though it seems unlikely to be regularly available in the quantities needed for Rome. That said, in the wake of a disaster it certainly would've been a sensible way to clear the city of debris.
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