OK, so you get some energy, but I'm not sure that Waste-to-Energy plants are that much better than landfill. Once built you've constantly got to 'feed' them, which inevitably leads to dilution of the Waste Minimisation message. There's also the issue of dioxins etc. generated when you burn materials such as PVC and you've still got to dispose of the ash. They also tend to prevent adoption of much better technologies for dealing with different types of waste (such as anaerobic digestion to generate biomethane from organic waste).the_lyniezian wrote: Of course they could end up being recycled as per the WEEE directive- and the fact taht Stockton has no landfill, only one of these "waste-to-energy" plants and the rest gets sorted for recycling. About one of the few good things about this town.
get rid of your plastic pumpkins
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Well, very true, and I did have some of this in the back of my mind- the concept of anaerobic digestion for methane not however being in my thoughts. But it is to some degree better than nothing, and as I stated there is a place for separating off recyclable waste into different sorts- rather than the old days where one would simply take things "down the tip" or in our case, incinerator and most of it would get burned up, discounting electricals and garden waste I think.Mark wrote:OK, so you get some energy, but I'm not sure that Waste-to-Energy plants are that much better than landfill. Once built you've constantly got to 'feed' them, which inevitably leads to dilution of the Waste Minimisation message. There's also the issue of dioxins etc. generated when you burn materials such as PVC and you've still got to dispose of the ash. They also tend to prevent adoption of much better technologies for dealing with different types of waste (such as anaerobic digestion to generate biomethane from organic waste).the_lyniezian wrote: Of course they could end up being recycled as per the WEEE directive- and the fact taht Stockton has no landfill, only one of these "waste-to-energy" plants and the rest gets sorted for recycling. About one of the few good things about this town.
Of course I'd imagine the easiest ways to negate the "need to feed" diluting of the waste reduction message is to use less energy too!