It sounds good, but turning garbage to energy has downsides, critics say

Drastically reducing the amount of garbage going to landfills while creating a clean energy source in the process _ it sounds like the perfect solution to the world‘s environmental woes.

But critics argue that the process of heating garbage to create a gas that can then be used to produce heat and electricity _ a process known as garbage gasification _ is an unsustainable solution to the problem of overflowing landfills that will ultimately cause more harm than good to the environment and human health.
Garbage gasification is a two-step process. First, solid waste is heated anaerobically, or without oxygen, to extract a synthetic gas. That gas is then burned to produce heat or electricity that can be added to a city‘s regular grid.

The byproducts include ash and, depending on the plant‘s emission controls, greenhouse gases and other particles that can be hazardous to human health.

Paul Connett, a retired professor of chemistry with St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., says gasification is no different from incineration, and anyone who believes otherwise is being “hoodwinked.‘‘

“Basically what you‘re doing is destroying materials that we should be sharing with the future. We buy things today, we destroy them tomorrow. That‘s a non-sustainable way of living on a finite planet.‘‘

In addition to greenhouse gases, gasification creates what Connett calls “toxic nano-particles‘‘ which, when inhaled by humans, can cause degenerative diseases that affect tissues, including the brain.

“When you incinerate, you‘re converting tons and tons of material into trillions of tiny particles, and those tiny particles by definition contain every toxic element that we use in commerce,‘‘ he said.

But despite critics‘ warnings, the technology seems to be growing in popularity, and two major Canadian cities are moving ahead with projects to convert their garbage to energy.

Oil Weel