Effects of Burning Municipal Waste on Environment and Health

Source separation, recycling, combustion, and bene­ ficial use of ash residues are important components of plans for management of household and commercial wastes in order to minimize the cost and risks of landfilling. Municipal incinerators, originally built to avoid unsanitary landfills, are now becoming efficiently operated power plants. However, in order to obtain permits to build and operate them, the public has to be assured that combustion will result in acceptable air quality, and that ash residues will not contaminate the ground water. Worldwide research on emissions from combustion has produced a consensus that with good design, operation and monitoring, municipal refuse combustors (MWCs) can reduce potentially toxic organiC compounds to extremely low levels which do not represent a risk to health. Emissions of particulates, acid gases and heavy metals and dioxins in stack gases can be reduced to acceptable levels by the synergistic use of alkaline reagents at reduced stack gas temperatures to assure condensation and collecting of these pollutants. Properties and methods of treatment of ash residues from combustion of municipal waste are being studied so that they can be disposed properly, or used beneficially. The burden on the environment of toxics such as lead and dioxins has been reduced substantially since 1970.