I understand it’s probably a more complex issue, but could it be similar to a 4th grade science project where you filter water through a bottle with a variety of rocks, sticks, moss etc?
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This is actually something that is happening already. With the caveat that it’s not really possible to ENTIRELY filter out the toxic fumes entirely.
Trash incinerators create a massive amount of heat, which means that you can use it to create steam, that pushes on a turbine on a generator. I.e, most trash incinerators are actually electrical power plants, trash is just the fuel.
Another thing you can use the steam water for is that you can use it for central heating. In cities where the climate requires that you heat your house for 8 months or more per year, it’s financially sound to sell hot water so that many, many homes and businesses can use the energy for heating instead of having their own combusting heat source in the building.
If you want to be a bit blunt, it’s only in this kind of setup that a trash incinerator is particular environment friendly.
– When you compare the combustion of trash with burning something biological, like a rest product from the timber industry.
– when you compare the incinerators exhaust fumes to the less clean fumes you would have had if every building in the entire city would have had to burn oil, natural gas or firewood for heating.
In other words, even if you think about it, it’s not a great idea. It’s just that it’s an idea that is a lot better than digging a large hole in the ground and making a landfill of trash, but to be convinced that it IS a better idea, you need to produce things that you would otherwise have exhaust from, when you compare the exhausts you get from trash.
One reason that the equation is a bit fiddly is that trash is not really a homogen and predictable product. Incinerators more or less CONSTANTLY add a hint petroleum to the process to maintain the exhaust *temperature* that their cleaning equipment needs to function as intended.
It’s a complex system, with quite many factors that speak both for and against.
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