Moreover, until plastics that degrade themselves emerge, defenders of incineration advocate allowing the use of incineration technology to solve the existing crisis; that is, perhaps for the time being it is better to incinerate plastic waste than let it leak into the oceans.
Each year, the production and incineration of plastic emits about 400 million tonnes of CO2 globally, a part of which could be avoided through better recycling.
Special attention should be paid to avoid creating further environmental and health impacts, for example, by promoting non-best available technology (BAT) waste incineration of plastics without tight environmental controls, which may be an important identified source of POPs, such as dioxins and furans.
It recommends these countries - China, Indonesia, The Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam - increase incineration of plastics that can't be recycled.
The presence of PCDDs, PCDFs, and PCBs in the environment is largely attributed to human activities, including the incineration of plastics and industrial processes involving chlorinated compounds.
Air pollution caused by plastic incineration leads to respiratory infections.
High-temperature incineration of waste plastics has at least two potential advantages.
Plastic waste incineration is the main source of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs), which, as toxic materials, have aroused increasing attention all over the world.
Also, open burning of plastic or incineration involves air emissions of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, chlorine, dioxin and fine particulates and emissions of greenhouse gases of CO2 and nitrous oxide (N2O); ash which remains after incineration needs to be disposed of and can be toxic.
Because those statistics are based on the incineration of general waste including plastics - not of plastic waste alone.
