Burning plastics

For more eye candy check out olivepixel

Its a great photo for sure so I guess something good can come from burniung plastic but art aside it might not be that good an option.

Can you burn plastic ? The answers are confusing.

Plastic is made from oil. It can be burnt and the heat generated used for power generation. True

here are some arguments for burning plastic

On the other hand the addatives added to some plastics are extremely poisonous and are released when burnt. True

So is it safe to burn plastics on say my bonfire? Yes and No some you can others will poison you – to death apparently. EEK! Can you tell them apart ? Not always – DOUBLE EEK!

So what about waste incineration plants – what do they do with the poison plastic? They burn it.

Is that good? Well opinions vary wildy from yes we have the technology to no we are poisoning the very air that we breath. Hmmm .

Check this out for some thoughts on the subject

Plastic Problems – disposal solutions

What we do with plastic rubbish now…

Landfill – plastic in landfill is a big problem – because it doesn’t rot, it is there for ever. Consequently the landfill is filling up.

Plastic litter as individually dropped, wind borne or deliberately tipped into rivers and the sea ( boats are allowed to dump their rubbish into the oceans)  is a huge environmental problem

Burning plastic – in small fires or incinerators either way its a hot debate with very wildly opposing opinions expressed strongly by all  involved

Recycling - melting down plastic rubbish to make new plastic products is a better way of dealing with our plastic rubbish and needs to be promoted more

Degradable Plastic  the industries solution – an addative that causes plastic to degrade faster

Plastic eating microbes - can they eat all that plastic rubbish?
Crafty Plastic – using old throwaway plastic rubbish to make something new and beautiful 

OR ….just stop creating plastic rubbish. Dont be part of the plastic problem join the plastic boycott – take a look round my blog for plastic free products and check out these  Anti Plastic Campaigns .

Find other plastic free products with the >>>A-Z<<< plastic free index

Burning plastic

Those of you kind enough to read these pages will know that one of the reasons I am boycotting disposable plastic products is that they are not so easily disposable. For instance burning them – may be not such a good idea….. I got the following from if energy

Can you burn plastics? This is a very old question that has not really been answered. Some people think that burning plastics in wood stoves, furnaces, or in open fires is better than burying plastics in land fills. But this practice produces a lot of pollution and health hazards that cannot be ignored.

Let’s break the problem down to size. Burning garbage produces unpredictable results when burned together. This is because garbage contains so many components that when burned, simply changes chemical form. The resulting pollutants are therefore always unknown. When you burn plastics with paper and other materials, the chemicals on them may be released unto the atmosphere or left on the ground. These will find its way into the biological systems of plants and animals and ultimately deposited into human cells and tissues. From there it may cause anything from simple allergies to more formidable conditions like Cancer.

One of the most dangerous pollutants that is produced as a result of garbage being burned together is a highly toxic chemical called Dioxin. According to Wood Heat, Dioxin does not decompose and builds up in tissues of animals and humans, and can be found in fat cells of cows and humans. The World Health Organization said

“Once dioxins have entered the environment or body, they are there to stay due to their uncanny ability to dissolve in fats and to their rock-solid chemical stability.”

In incinerators, Dioxins can be destroyed but in open fires, it will be produced. To stop the incidence of toxins being produced, garbage must be segregated prior to burning.

Which leads me back to our original question, after segregating plastics from the other components of garbage (which must be recycled when applicable),can we burn them?

The answer is yes, several types of plastics can be burned. Toxins come from “Halogenated Plastics”, those that are made from chlorine or fluorine, which clearly should not be burned. On the other hand, Polyethylene which is a common plastic and is not made from these chemicals can be burned. Polyethylene has the same heating value as oil and can be mixed with other fuel types easily (grounded and mixed thoroughly).

But why should we burn polyethylene, when it burns easily and produces black smoke and soot? Some researchers in India are looking at binding briquettes using polyethylene. Mixed with well ground agro-residue for use in high temperature combustion systems, polyethylene plastic can be used as a major component for char briquettes.

The most important reason for burning plastics this way is that when collected, sorted, and used as fuel, the amount of plastics used by one household on a daily basis is almost equal to the amount of plastics reused as fuel, thus solving an energy and a waste management concern.

For more on burning plastic go to dioxins and burning plastic

Boy discovers plastic eating microbe

Is this a good idea?- much as Pam hates bad plastic and there is no doubt she does, she is rather attached to her computer and Dyson. Will they disappear before her very eyes. Somehow she cant see the employers accepting that as an excuse for the lack of reportage. Smacks rather too much of the dog ate my homework scam… Still heres the story

“He knew plastic does eventually degrade, and figured microorganisms must be behind it. His goal was to isolate the microorganisms that can break down plastic — not an easy task because they don’t exist in high numbers in nature.”

For more click the link
It was linked to the original news story but that crashes everytime I try so go via geek dad.

For those of you who are a little woolly on the terms microbes here is a great post that explains a lot.

Dioxins & why you dont want to be burning plastic

Can you burn plastic? Well it never burns easily – it melts and bubbles.  It will burn eventually but you have to keep heating it – click here if you want to know why.

But if you do try to set fire to plastic it gives off a terrible smell at least in my experiance — as a child playing round the back of the derelict garages I hasten to add.

But is it bad for you?

The smell according to the naked scientist could be anything

“There are lots of different plastics, and they will give off lots of different vapours when they decompose.

It could be just a simple hydrocarbon, or it could contain cyanides, or PCB’s, or lots of other substances.  Without knowing what the plastic was (including what additives might have been incorporated), it would be difficult to know what are the likely volatiles it would create…. volatiles given off from plastics in house fires are a major cause of death.

http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/?topic=7883

The everyman opinion varies dramatically see the guardian debate

So the answer is a tricky one – aren’t they all. It really depends what plastic you are talking about

Apparently, its ok to burn polythene. In fact it is so cloesly related to oil and if reprocessed as briquettes can make a very efficient fuel and there are plans afoot to use it as such in India. For more details go to ifenergy.

Personally I wont be trying this at home because other kinds of plastic are not so easily burnt.  Halogenated plastics, those that are made from chlorine or fluorine are problomatic.

According to Wikipedia

Halogenated plastics include:
Chlorine based plastics:
Chlorinated polyethylene (CPE)
Chlorinated polyvinyl chloride (CPVC)
Chlorosulfonated polyethylene (CSPE)
Polychloroprene (CR or chloroprene rubber, marketed under the brand name of Neoprene)
PVC
Fluorine based plastics:
Fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP)

Dioxins are unintentionally, but unavoidably produced during the manufacture of materials containing chlorine, including PVC and other chlorinated plastic feedstocks.

Burning these plastics can release dioxins.

Dioxin is a known human carcinogen and the most potent synthetic carcinogen ever tested in laboratory animals. A characterization by the National Institute of Standards and Technology of cancer causing potential evaluated dioxin as over 10,000 times more potent than the next highest chemical (diethanol amine), half a million times more than arsenic and a million or more times greater than all others.

IN CONCLUSION I WONT BE BURNING PLASTIC ON MY BONFIRE

But is it safe to burn in waste disposal units? Incinerators I mean?

Well the debate rages – the following posts illustrate the differences in opinion.

http://wasteplastictechnology.blogspot.com/2005/09/myth-on-burning-plastics.html

http://lists.essential.org/1998/dioxin-l/msg00751.html