Plastics Waste Incineration

MSW incineration was estimated to be the leading source of PCDDs in air (EuroChlor, 2003) in Europe as well as in the United States. There are 75 congeners of PCDD and 135 congeners of PCDF. Most of the dioxins generated end up in the 

FIGURE 9.9 The general structure for PSDD, PCDF, and PCS are shown in the first row. An example of a congener derived from each of these is shown in the second row. 

TABLE 9.7 Average Emissions from 87 WTE Plants in the United States  

Pollutants Unit Average emission USEPA standard 

TABLE 9.8 Calcnlated GHG Emissions from incineration of Different Plastic Resins  

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Installation of power generation facilities based on the plastics waste incineration... 

LCA have been successfully utilised in the field of plastics waste management, for example, to assess differences in environmental performance between different waste incineration strategies [24] or related activities such as the flue gas cleaning process of plastic waste incinerators [25], to compare the environmental performance of different scenarios for the management of mixed plastics waste as well as that of specific plastic waste fractions [25-32]. 

R. S. Magee, Plastics in Municipal Solid Waste Incineration A Eiterature Study, Hazardous Substance Management Research Center, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Mar. 1989. 

Local autliority control of au pollution covers a second tier of less-polluting processes. Incinerators for waste chemicals, or waste plastic arising from their manufacture, and other waste incinerators dependent upon size are, however, subject to both the BATNEEC and BPEO requirements under the IPC regime. 

Plastics Waste - Feedstock Recycling, Chemical Recycling and Incineration... 

Municipal solid waste incinerators (MSWIs) are a robust treatment method for very different mixed waste types of different origin. The typical MSWI handles waste of a calorific value between 9 and 13 MJ/kg. They are the key technology for the treatment of integral household waste in countries such as Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany. Some 7% of this integral household waste consists of plastics. Treatment of... 

Finally, other relevant treatment options for plastics waste include landfill and mechanical recycling. Since these options (unlike Vinyloop and cement kiln incineration) are not even similar to feedstock recycling we discuss them here only very briefly. Mechanical recycling of plastics (be it PVC or other plastics), needs dedicated collection of the plastic waste in question. This is only possible for selected plastic flows (high volumes, recognisable products, products consisting mainly of one plastic). Landfill can accept plastic waste in any waste context (pure plastic type, MPW, mixed materials). I will only address the costs of these alternative technologies. 

Incineration with energy recovery is examined as a means for the disposal of plastics waste, and data are presented for the calorific values of a number of materials. Chemical recycling techniques are also briefly reviewed. 

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