Incineration Technologies for Managing Solid Waste

Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, however, mitigate the risks to public health and make incineration an alternative worth exploring. Incineration can reduce solid waste to 85 percent to 90 percent of the incoming volume, or 65 percent to 80 percent of the incoming weight. With some modification, a waste incinerator can be designed to recover energy in the form of steam, hot water or electricity. This latter type is known as a resource recovery or waste-to-energy facility. Most newer waste incinerators are the waste-to-energy type. Incineration facilities can be very costly to develop, but once operational, waste disposal costs tend to remain by Bruce Bawkon fairly stable. Also, life-cycle costs can be significantly reduced through the recovery and use or sale of thermal and/or electric energy. Although all incinerators now require pollution control devices, there remain issues and concerns about air quality, ash disposal and environmental impacts.