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Discuss the pros and cons of thermal treatment of municipal solid waste

Sociology

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Discuss the pros and cons of thermal treatment of municipal solid waste. Would a waste-to-energy (WTE) plant be useful for your community's solid waste? Are you in favor of having a WTE plant near your community? Why, or why not?
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Heather:

Some of the pros of thermal treatment of MSW are disposal of infectious/hazardous materials, energy production and it is an alternative to landfilling the materials. Some cons of thermal treatment are emissions such as dioxin, waste heat, and ash that needs proper disposal. I absolutely believe that a WTE plant would be beneficial in my community if for nothing else but an alternative to the landfill. The electronics recycling company I previously worked for had just begun the process of looking into setting up their own WTE system to produce energy to run the shredder and lower the electricity bill. I no longer work there, so I do not know if they are going to proceed with that, but I hope so. Not only is it a way for the business to save money, but they will no longer have to ship material to other states for WTE and the community can contribute their waste instead of sending it to the landfill. Until about two years ago most of our electricity came from our nuclear power plant. This plant was decommissioned and I’m not sure what has replaced it as far as electricity production.