Global from incinerator

Available global estimates of atmospheric emissions from incinerators and other uses are not well known. National estimates for the percentage of mercury emitted from waste treatment of total recorded national anthropogenic emissions to air differ widely, from 58% in Denmark 1992/93 (Maag etal. 1996) and 34% in the USA 1994/95 to 10% in Sweden 1995 and 5% in Norway 1999 (UNEP 2002). 

For global warming the DEHP production contributes significantly to GHG emissions. Also the waste phase seems to be important and can be influenced. Incineration seems the worst option for waste treatment due to CO2 emissions from... 

McCulloch A, Aucott ML, Benkovitz CM, Graedel TE, Kleiman G, Midgley PM, Li YF (1999) Global Emissions of Hydrogen Chloride and Chloromethane from Coal Combustion, Incineration, and Industrial Activities Reactive Chlorine Emissions Inventory. 

The strong acid, HCl, is also emitted by other processes like incineration of waste, or steel making and might be regionally important for acidification but not on a greater scale. Lightowlers and Cape (1988) estimated a source of 260 Gg a" for the UK in 1983. On a global scale, release of HCl from sea salt aerosols and... 

McCulloch A., Aucott M. L., Benkovitz C. M., Graedel T. E., Kleinman G., Midgley P. M., and Li Y.-F. (1999) Global emissions of hydrogen chloride and chloromethane from coal combustion, incineration and industrial activities reactive chlorine emissions inventory. J. Geophys. Res. 

For some excipients, the global acceptability of some packaging materials varies from country to country. This can often stem from environmental concerns and the negative impact from the need to dispose of packaging waste. For example, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is used widely to manufacture bottles and blisters for pharmaceutical products, but there is a growing concern about its safe use and disposal in some countries (Hansen 1999). Incineration is the preferred method of disposal for PVC, with the downside that it emits toxic gases. Materials that are readily biodegradable, or that can be recycled, are preferred. This is not always possible with some types of synthetic materials. 

Waste PVC materials, at the end of their useful life, can continue to cause problems. They are likely to be powerful sources of POP if their waste is incinerated, and dioxins can be produced easily by unregulated burning. The environmental group Greenpeace has advocated the global phase-out of PVC with the claim that dioxins are produced as by-products during the manufacture of PVC, as well as from the incineration of waste PVC in domestic garbage. 

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