3 ms·

There's very very little nitrogen in plastic. Among commonly used plastics just nylon has it (and not very much - 2 out of 38 atoms are nitrogen), and there's n

• bombcar 4y ago
  Is the trash pure plastic? I actually suspect incineration is not a bad method at all, just wonder were everything else would go. I assume scrubbers or something.
  • ars 4y ago
    There's probably some contamination, but ideally it's just plastic and paper. And yah, scrubbers would handle everything else. Vinyl has chlorine which also needs to be removed. These types of scrubbers are in use all over, it's not a new technology. The main thing is to remove food and other organic waste, remove metals because they are useful. Glass is harmless, but also clutters up the ash, so best to remove it as well. If it were up to me recycling would work like this: Metal, plastic, and paper would be recycled, single stream. The metal is easily removed, the rest is burned. Glass and organics (and everything else) would be thrown out, with some people opting to compost, I would encourage, but not require, composting. There is really no reason to recycle glass, and trying to do so causes more harm than good since it smashes and the shards get in everything and just makes it harder to make a pure product. If you absolutely must recycle glass, it has to be in its own bin, do not single stream it.