3 ms·

I don’t believe plastic burning is a widespread energy source.

• mrpopo 4y ago
  Japan and I believe Singapore burn most of their plastic in incinerators to generate electricity. Coincidentally they are also among the highest plastic waste producers per capita.
  • throwaway2037 4y ago
    Korea, Taiwan, and Switzerland are similar.
• elil17 4y ago
  It happens in waste-to-energy power plants (a.k.a garbage power plants). They can be a great way to get rid of waste but they require a lot of filtering of the exhaust to be safe. Adequate filtering is universal in some countries (like Sweden). In the USA, waste-to-energy plants frequently have inadequate filtering, which can make them dirtier than coal plants.
  • cassepipe 4y ago
    Do you know if they have to reach a certain temperature ? I would think so because I assumme garbage produces a lot of fumes and gases that would better off burned for energy rather that ending in the air. On the other end I wonder what kind of temperature you can get with a dumpster fire
    • fomine3 4y ago
      Incinerators in Japan must be above 800C to avoid generating toxic materials like dioxins. https://www.env.go.jp/content/900453393.pdf https://www.env.go.jp/content/900453393.pdf
  • jhoechtl 4y ago
    > In the USA, waste-to-energy plants frequently have inadequate filtering, which can make them dirtier than coal plants. Source? With EPA being so rigid about diesel cars it would doubt that. Unless the whole regulation was about keeping german car manufacturers in cheque...
    • deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
• acidioxide 4y ago
  In my city there is an incineration plant which produces about 94 GWh of electricity a year, covering 11% of city's needs.