Question

1. List three barriers to implementation of incineration of waste-to-energy in the United States that would not exist in small, isolated, or developing economies.

Answer 1

The barriers that will come into the implementation of incineration of waste-to-energy in the United States and won’t exist in small, isolated, or developing economies are:
1.The first and the foremost reason why of incineration of waste-to-energy is not very famous in developed countries like US is because of the Environmental implications as incineration of waste-to-energy by combined heat and power (CHP) plant will produce gases like carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide etc. However with technologies like Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) the amount of polluting gases have reduced a lot.
2. Apart from this it produces ash which is approximately 10%-20% of the waste volume and since this ash contains high volume of toxins therefore it’s not sustainable to landfill this ash.
3. The last barrier is the cost associated with building these of incineration plants and the cost of energy produces is very high (as we have high volumes of shale gas in US which is a cheaper alternative) and therefore government use other alternatives to manage waste in developed countries.