- 10% of the plastic I dispose of doesn’t end up in the ocean because I live in a civilised country that disposes of it in the places made for it’s disposal.
- Plastic is incinerated in special chambers that make sure everything burns to a simple combination of CO2+H2O, while your home probably doesn’t have the necessary equipment to do so.
https://www.wired.com/story/the-worlds-recycling-is-in-chaos...
https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2019/08/smart-plas...
- Nonetheless, the risk of harmful substances reaching the air may not be completely eliminated by engineers. In some countries, newer incinerators would apply air pollution control technologies, including fabric filters, electrostatic precipitators and scrubbers, the CIEL authors argue. However, these filters may not prevent all hazardous emissions, such as ultra-fine particles - unregulated and particularly harmful to health - from escaping into the air.
This was my uninformed understanding of incineration - that there's at least some toxic leftovers no matter how hot you burn it.
Is there really a way to burn it down to just CO2 and water ?