Is it greener to just burn plastic?
Is it greener to just burn plastic?
Just thinking in terms of compared to microplastics and toxins in recycled plastic.
Definitely not burning it, but pyrolysis has been suggested (basically "burn" it in an oxygen-free environment).
The plastics are heated to about 500 °C in the absence of oxygen. The longer molecules break into liquid fractions like naphtha and diesel, solid cuts like waxes, and lower-molecular-weight gases. In most plants, roughly 10% of the product is char, a by-product.
It's not without its drawbacks. Some gases are produced, and those are either burned to (partially?) power the pyrolysis process or are flared off. About 10% is reduced to char and would have to be disposed of conventionally (unsure of the environmental impact of that).
I don't have time right now to dive deep into the topic (just throwing off what I do know plus a link that explains it), but it's possible it's less harmful overall than just throwing it in a landfill forever. (Assuming the input energy for the reaction chamber comes from clean sources.)
https://cen.acs.org/environment/recycling/Amid-controversy-industry-goes-plastics-pyrolysis/100/i36
No it isn't more 'green'
Burning it creates much more toxins etc. than a 'normal' recycling procedure. And of course lots of soot and CO2 and whatnot...
Plus burning it allows those toxins to disperse across the environment while more traditional recycling can keep the toxins mostly concentrated on landfill/processing sites.
Using high temperature incinerators, yes. IIRC you'll need at least 1000°C to reduce toxic fumes production when burning plastics.
With some plastics, in a proper incinerator, it can be, though you best be using the resultant heat to generate electricity.
In your firepit, no.
Redneck from Kentucky "you ain't seen my firepit"
I think you could make an argument that even burning plastic in a firepit vs sending it to a landfill are roughly equal. Climate change and air pollution are both major issues, but so is plastic waste and microplastics working their way into everything. I have no idea of the overall harm of burning plastic is less than throwing it away; they both pollute the environment. I can see the the logic in thinking burning is a viable alternative.
Ideally, though, people would just stop using disposable plastic. Plastic is a fantastic material, but it was never supposed to be for "use once and discard" items. For creating durable objects with a decent lifetime, sure, use plastic. Don't use it as wrapping over another plastic object.
Incineration, is the standard way of getting rid of non recyclable waste (a lot of plastic can be recycled) not that green but it allows to produce electricity and hot water which saves some oil
I wish we could get a mobile plasma arc gasification truck that goes around turning rubbish into glass and hydrogen with no landfill, but until that day... Don't burn it, just do your reasonable best to avoid buying it.
this is just burning plastic for energy with extra steps. remember, every extra step reduces efficiency
Plasma arc gasification is very low emissions versus anything we currently do with it, but I would obviously prefer we just stop using plastic. Given how unlikely that is, the idea of plasma trucks going about eliminating the need for waste management infrastructure is at least fun enough to bring up conversationally.
Japan has been burning plastic for energy as part of its recycling process - I think the parts that aren't able to be recycled
Define "green". In terms of CO2 it would obviously be horrible and incredibly stupid.
I don't see how they could possibly be true but I'm no scientist.
There is a lot of interesting info here: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Is+it+greener+to+just+burn+plastic&ia=web
Also, I highly recommend reading the Wikipedia article on microplastics.