What’s Stopping Us From Turning Waste Into Energy

We all know that garbage is one of our main problems when it comes to environmental pollution. But what if we burn it and use it as fuel for our power plants?

Generating electricity from wastes 

through incineration is 

a good way to dispose garbage

Photo Credits: Kim Newberg / publicdomainpictures.net

Incinerating our wastes and converting it into a source of electricity is a good idea you might say but, as it turns out, it is not that feasible. That is why, as of now, the trend is to look for alternatives other than this to solve pollution and electricity generation.

The problem with this process is not that it gives off toxic substances that can mix with the air we breathe. Although that is possible, recent advancements in technology prove that they can capture the harmful materials that incinerating wastes will emit. In addition, based upon recent findings, household exhausts dump more toxic substances into the atmosphere than modern incinerators.

And if you think that disposing ashes, the remnants of burning wastes, is a problem, the ashes can be used in various ways particularly in construction.

What then is the problem?

The problem with this method is that it is a lot cheaper to just dump the garbage in landfills rather than to burn them. Burning garbage uses fuel and requires erecting facilities while dumping wastes would only require transporting to large available lands.

Won’t the electricity produced from incinerating wastes offset the price of fuel?

Yes, but…

Although using garbage to produce electricity will somehow offset the cost, there are still other sources of electricity that are much cheaper. A company that will invest in selling electricity by incinerating wastes will have a hard time competing with electricity coming from nuclear power, hydroelectric and fossil fuels.

We are only availing of the cheaper means of waste disposal, which is through landfills, and cheaper sources of electricity.

However, even if incinerating wastes may not be the best solution to waste disposal, it is more environment friendly than to just dump them in landfills. Until we can find a greener alternative than this, incineration may be more viable.

Somehow waste incineration should be implemented.

Amid the obstacles facing waste incineration, one possible solution for it to be largely implemented is to make a concerted effort to focus on minimizing wastes. Incineration reduces waste volume by more than 90% and even the 10% left should not be dumped in landfills. It should be made well known that landfills is not the proper waste disposal solution and that disposal of wastes would entail a certain price. We should all know that today, there is a cost involved when we buy something and there is also a cost when we throw something away – even if it is garbage.