Hacker News Reader

Comment by Bjoern | Hacker News Reader

Does anyone have an idea what the impact of burning the trash has on the air pollution?

In theory all that's emitted is carbon dioxide and water after filter and wet-cleaning stages. I'm sure it's not perfect, though it's lightyears better than most comparables, especially considering the reduction in environmental impact from landfills .

Here's a pdf on the process: http://www.avfallsverige.se/fileadmin/uploads/forbranning_en...

It's also worth noting that since they primarily burn organic matter (plastics and metals get recycled in other ways), the CO2 that is released into the air is CO2 that was taken out of the air only a few years earlier. (Instead of, say, a few million years ago, as is the case with petroleum products)

@throwawayjoke

No, this is not an example of a sunken costs fallacy. This is not "in for the penny, in for the pound" sort of logic.

Consider that the alternative is letting the organic waste rot, and in the process, release C02 and methane.

What they are doing here is removing CO2 temporarily from the atmosphere with solar power, then releasing the CO2 to produce heat which they then convert to electricity. It's solar power, they just use photosynthesis and the general population gets some use out of the middle step.

The reason this is not a good idea to do with CO2 that was taken out of the atmosphere millenia ago is that 1) we don't want that much CO2 back in the atmosphere, and 2) we don't want that much CO2 back in the atmosphere that fast. Doing it in the short term, unlike in the long term, is not creating "unplanned" conditions.

Burning trash releases (among other things) dioxins. They are thought to cause cancer, according to the EPA.

http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/CFM/nceaQFind.cfm?keyword=Dioxin

However, I am sure clever filtering could solve the problem.

(Credit where credit is due: A banned user posted a link to a UK guardian article about air pollution due to garbage incineration, giving me a good place to start my research.)

Dioxins are created by burning trash at low temperatures, e.g. in a personal burn barrel. At high temperatures dioxins are destroyed. Please don't scare the Swedes.

At high temperatures above 1000 degrees C, dioxin decomposes and the incinerators here are constructed for that.

Offical numbers: "The total emissions of dioxins to air in Sweden in 2008 was about 38 grams of TCDD equivalents."

Of that 5g is supposed to be from wasteburning. (That number is disputed by greenpeace who claims that to be 114g)

This facility is located in the town where I live:

http://utslappisiffror.naturvardsverket.se/en/Search/Plant-p...

For those interested http://utslappisiffror.naturvardsverket.se/en/Emissions-to-A... (Sweden)

http://www.epa.gov/tri/tridata/tri10/nationalanalysis/index.... (USA)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com