Here’s what I know: 1) Plastic burns. 2) Heat can be used to generate energy with steam turbines, which I’m pretty sure is how nuclear power plants and fossil fuel plants work. 3) A specialized power plant can focus on increasing efficiency and decreasing pollution. 4) Plastic recycling is really hard and has been generally unsuccessful.
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Since 1988, La Crosse County has contracted with Xcel to [burn municipal waste](https://www.google.com/amp/s/lacrossetribune.com/news/local/in-pursuit-of-sustainability-companies-sending-waste-to-la-crosse/article_d89be121-cd6b-516e-a744-7d848e9e6838.amp.html) at the French Island plant, one of only two waste-to-energy plants in the state. The plant, which burns a mixture of refuse-derived-fuel and wood chips, last year generated 82,250 megawatt hours, enough electricity to power about 9,800 homes
There is probably an issue with effort in vs power out. They probably can’t just toss everything in and hope for the best. They probably do a lot of work separating out hazardous materials that shouldn’t be burned. Anything galvanized steel, batteries, cleaning supplies… All probably really bad to release into the air. Plus, my sister went to college there and said when the wind blows the wrong way, you can definitely smell it from a decent chunk of town. Nobody’s gonna want that in their backyard, so you’d be better off putting it somewhere remote, and then you have the issue of transporting that power somewhere.
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