Incineration

 

               Another popular method of waste removal that has been present since humans discovered the applications of fire, and that’s incineration. Incineration is the act of destroying trash and waste by burning. One of the first incinerators was built in Manhattan in 1905 in response to the large amount of trash that was building up in the streets. The incinerator basically consisted of a large brick chamber that was filled with trash then burned. The heat was recycled to burn more trash. Incinerators gained popularity and spread to about 200 burners around the country by 1960. Additionally, many people burned their own trash in their backyards, and this is a practice is still used today.

                Today, incinerators are more advanced and include much higher forms of technology. In municipal incinerators, waste from residential and commercial sources are brought to the plant and burned in a combustion chamber. Trash is burned at temperatures above 850˚C, and its products come in 4 forms. Some leftover solids are scrap metal and can be used as such, the rest of the solid waste is called bottom ash. Some of this ash is made of small metal fractions and can be repurposed into steel and other metals. The rest of the ash is nonhazardous and is often used for other purposes, such as an ingredient in concrete. The second byproduct is toxic gas like carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and other gasses. These are “cleaned” in a variety of ways, then released. An additional solid waste of the process is fly ash which is burned material that is too light to fall to the bottom, but flies in the air. This product is considered hazardous and must be taken to a hazardous waste facility. Finally, the last byproduct of incineration is the generation of heat and energy. This expelled energy is often used to generate electricity for the plant or for the community.

                Incineration has become a very important topic of interest recently because of its many different advantages and disadvantages. Some of the advantages of incineration include space conservation and energy generation. Incinerators save space by not requiring lots of space for a landfill. Also, the generation of energy is a very important factor in today’s time when energy is becoming a prominent issue. Additionally, there are some large disadvantages to incinerators as well. First, they are rather expensive to build and to maintain, at least more expensive than a landfill. Also, the release of dangerous gasses expelled from the burning is very harmful to the environment. These gases can harm the atmosphere and contribute to global warming.

                Stay Sustainable,

                Shelby

Sources:

http://www.wrfound.org.uk/articles/incineration.html

http://www.dublinwastetoenergy.ie/uploads/archive/html/how_incinerator_works.html

http://greengarageblog.org/8-pros-and-cons-of-incineration