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Proper sequestration of plastic garbage in well managed garbage dumps is much better. Turning plastic into fuel and then burning the fuel is far less energy eff
by tsimionescu 3y ago
Proper sequestration of plastic garbage in well managed garbage dumps is much better. Turning plastic into fuel and then burning the fuel is far less energy efficient than burning extracted fuel, so it's worse in the most critical way right now: it releases more greenhouse gas.
Of course, it's much better to produce less plastic in the first place.
- Ekaros 3y agoI think if we compare burying plastic to properly controller industrial incineration in combined production that is both electricity and heat is likely better option. As that means we do not need to extract and process the fuel we would use for same purpose. Now refining plastic to fuel used in other ways or small scale burning is likely just idiotic.
- tsimionescu 3y agoI very much doubt this. Burning plastic is much less energy efficient than burning oil. However, plastic contains a similar amount of carbon/kg as oil. So, sequestering a kg of plastic while extracting a kg of oil is better than doing it the other way around. Even if we look at production costs, extracting and transporting liquids from the ground is also less energy intensive than transporting and processing solid plastic waste.