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

When you burn something, it doesn’t just vanish. It changes from one state to another. So if you turn it into gas and smoke, which is just smaller particles, and then you collect it all? Why bother burning it. It’s going to weigh the same. So yeah, burning works if you don’t mind adding the gases and particulates to the atmosphere. If you don’t want to do that, then burning is a waste of resources that produces more carbon to burn it.