5 ms·

My city has a waste to energy plant. Anything I put in the waste bin gets burned, and the energy is used to generate power or heat for the city. I have a hell

My city has a waste to energy plant. Anything I put in the waste bin gets burned, and the energy is used to generate power or heat for the city. I have a hell of a time convincing my wife that we ought to just chuck all plastics into the waste rather than stick them in the recycling bin, since only God knows where the plastics in the recycling bin end up. Maybe they get recycled, maybe they get dumped onto a smoldering trash mountain in Turkey or maybe they end up floating down the Yangtze. Even if they do get recycled into a fleece sweater or whatever, given what we know about microplastic shedding, do we really want that? Just burn the shit and recover the energy, I say.

prepend 4y ago
> since only God knows where the plastics in the recycling bin end up. They likely end up in the same place as your waste.
mclightning 4y ago
is burning plastic actually an exothermic reaction?
- Scoundreller 4y ago
  yes, it's basically gas/oil
concordDance 4y ago
Landfill is better because it doesn't release CO2.
settrans 4y ago
Indeed this is HWFO's core thesis: https://hwfo.substack.com/p/an-illustrated-guide-to-plastic-straws https://hwfo.substack.com/p/an-illustrated-guide-to-plastic-...
- kzrdude 4y ago
  Landfilling still seems very inefficient. As Sweden has done for a long time: what ever you put in "regular waste" goes to incineration. The heat is used for district heating. Remains from incineration can be landfilled. Exhaust gases are monitored and cleaned. Regular landfills have thus been abolished, which is a success. It's a small step, but IMO a very notable achievement. And it has outraged some that plastic "recycling" goes into the same system in many parts of the country. I don't mind in principle - it is their (local government's) system, they are tasked with being professional and disposing of collected plastic in the best way possible. If that's going to be burning with retention of heat, then that's acceptable.
  - ianburrell 4y ago
    Burning trash produces CO2 and that needs to be factored in. My guess is that CO2 produced transporting waste to landfill is less than that produced by burning. With landfills, there is problem with food and wharf waste producing methane. Separating that out and composting it, which produces CO2, is solution that my city does. Sending waste to well-run landfill feels wrong but can be best alternative. We should probably worry less about recycling plastic and more about making sure there is no litter.
    - throw_away1525 4y ago
      However, incinerating waste produces heat/energy which would otherwise have been obtained from burning fossil fuels. At the end of the day it is a complicated problem and the only real solution - consume less shit - is basically untenable, so :shrugs:
    - prepend 4y ago
      > Burning trash produces CO2 and that needs to be factored in. My understanding is that waste incineration includes co2 scrubbers to capture co2 so it isn’t released into the atmosphere.
      - Scoundreller 4y ago

prepend 4y ago

> since only God knows where the plastics in the recycling bin end up. They likely end up in the same place as your waste.

mclightning 4y ago

is burning plastic actually an exothermic reaction?

Scoundreller 4y ago
yes, it's basically gas/oil

concordDance 4y ago

Landfill is better because it doesn't release CO2.

settrans 4y ago

Indeed this is HWFO's core thesis: https://hwfo.substack.com/p/an-illustrated-guide-to-plastic-straws https://hwfo.substack.com/p/an-illustrated-guide-to-plastic-...

kzrdude 4y ago
Landfilling still seems very inefficient. As Sweden has done for a long time: what ever you put in "regular waste" goes to incineration. The heat is used for district heating. Remains from incineration can be landfilled. Exhaust gases are monitored and cleaned. Regular landfills have thus been abolished, which is a success. It's a small step, but IMO a very notable achievement. And it has outraged some that plastic "recycling" goes into the same system in many parts of the country. I don't mind in principle - it is their (local government's) system, they are tasked with being professional and disposing of collected plastic in the best way possible. If that's going to be burning with retention of heat, then that's acceptable.
- ianburrell 4y ago
  Burning trash produces CO2 and that needs to be factored in. My guess is that CO2 produced transporting waste to landfill is less than that produced by burning. With landfills, there is problem with food and wharf waste producing methane. Separating that out and composting it, which produces CO2, is solution that my city does. Sending waste to well-run landfill feels wrong but can be best alternative. We should probably worry less about recycling plastic and more about making sure there is no litter.
  - throw_away1525 4y ago
    However, incinerating waste produces heat/energy which would otherwise have been obtained from burning fossil fuels. At the end of the day it is a complicated problem and the only real solution - consume less shit - is basically untenable, so :shrugs:
  - prepend 4y ago
    > Burning trash produces CO2 and that needs to be factored in. My understanding is that waste incineration includes co2 scrubbers to capture co2 so it isn’t released into the atmosphere.
    - Scoundreller 4y ago