Quote:
Originally Posted by jawagord
I didn't say the Chinese were burning the plastic, I was responding to your question about what WE could do with it. As Milo has stated most of the plastic is unusable for recycling into feedstock for other plastics because of the chemicals put into the plastic. So OUR choices are bury it or burn it.
We were recycling useful materials long before Blue Bins. Blue bins are full of additional wastes that are really poor recyclables. You need to educate yourself on how recycling really works, then you will see how limited our options are if China refuses to buy our recycled garbage and how inefficient blue bin collection is.
From the pickup point, most of Boston’s trash is sent to one of two incinerator operators, Wheelabrator Technologies in Saugus and Covanta, whose plants are in Haverhill and Rochester. Some of the waste travels by way of a transfer station in Lynn.
Once it reaches an incinerator, the waste is conveyed into a combustion chamber where it is burned at an extremely high temperature. The heat generated fires boilers whose steam drives power-generating turbines. The electricity they create feeds into the power grid to help light homes and offices.
The ash created by the combustion process is filtered to extract metal that can be recycled. Some of the resulting material is used as cover material at conventional landfills, and some goes into landfills with other waste that can’t be burned.
http://newbostonpost.com/2016/03/23/...tons-trash-go/
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Sorry, the burning part should have quoted DoubleK's post above yours, as he was the one saying they burn it in China.
I get that low grade plastics are tough to recycle, that's why it all goes to China (it basically says exactly that in the article). We definitely should do something with it though, putting it in the landfill where it will basically exist forever isn't a good solution. Burning it to make electricity isn't a bad option as long as the smoke is filtered as it is in your example.
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