Why can’t we simply burn all the non-renewable waste (such as single-use plastics, etc) and vent the gasses and particulate matter into holding containers to prevent their absorption into the environment?

Question

Is it a matter of the technology not existing? I understand it’s a grossly oversimplified model and I am neither an engineer nor a chemist, but I can’t imagine that we couldn’t simply set up a furnace that vents down a cooling pipe into a container or facility that captures the gasses and toxic particulate/waste for either further processing, reuse in industry, or just to stockpile.

In: Earth Science

Answer 1

It’s complicated. Incinerators exist and can be used to produce electricity but they are rarely clean. The cost to scrub or capture the smoke is too high.

Depending on the material it may actually be more environmentally friendly to landfill the waste because this captures the carbon that would otherwise be released.