Blog Post Climate & Air Quality: Trash Incineration

The poor disposal of trash and other solid waste is dangerous to humans and the environment. When the trash is burned in barrels, it releases dangerous pollutants, leading to health problems and also causing effects in environment. Many people around the world and especially in rural communities are currently burning trash in the open, barrels. The trash burning causes the emission of dioxin (chemicals that are known to persist and bioaccumulate in the environment, and are believed to present risks to human health and the environment). According to the article Dioxin Emissions from Burning Household Trash May Exceed MWC Emissions “backyard burning of household waste in barrels indicates that this practice could be a significant source of dioxin emissions, resulting in higher emissions than municipal waste combustors (MWCs)” The list below is a possible consequence of excess of emissions of dioxin chemicals: poor gas-phase mixing, low combustion temperatures, oxygen-starved conditions,high particulate matter (PM) loading, PM-bound copper, the presence of hydrochloric acid and chlorine, and significant gas-phase residence time in the 250–700oC temperaturerange. One of the simple ways to prevent this is to always recycle, recycle, and more recycle!

The Dioxin Cycle

Dioxin Emissions From Burning Household Trash May Exceed MWC Emissions. (2000). Air Pollution Consultant, 10(6), 1.3. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.