| GRN Recycle Talk FAQ Answer |
Date: Thu, 8 May 97 09:35 WET DST From: FRIEDMAN.FRED@EPAMAIL.EPA.GOV (Fred Friedman) Subject: Re: Burning Plastics/Recycling in Japan (Sarah Jones)
May 8, 1997
Dear Sarah Jones,
Whatever the Japanese may claim, incineration of plastics or anything else is not recycling. Yes, it produces energy from waste, but that isn t recycling, and it is their usual technological fix for everything attitude which makes them claim it.
To answer your question, the Dutch government concluded that incineration is financially the most efficient way to handle plastics, but that noxious emission make it the most environmentally damaging. What emissions?
- hydrochloric acid especially from PVC, but from other plastics too
- cadmium from PVC and others
- acid gases such as NOx and SO2 from many plastics
- other heavy metals: lead, zinc, chromium, mercury in trace amounts
- chlorinated dioxins and furans
- particulates
Dry lime scrubbers can remove up to 70-90% of fully incinerated emissions above, but not from partially incinerated plastics.
The problem is complex and does not lend itself to a one-to-one equation of plastic X being incinerated yields Y pounds of Z, A, B, and C substances after control technologies are applied.
But this does answer your question.l
- Research Library for RCRA