I was just out burning my trash when I wondered to myself, Why don't we burn trash for power?
I may not know enough about this stuff, but it seems to me that if we can scrub pollutants out of coal fired plants, why couldn't we do the same thing for trash? I'm not saying all trash, just the burnable stuff. Why not separate it and burn the burnable stuff, rather than taking it to a landfill? Just put the glass and plastics in the landfill, not a good thing, but better than nothing, and put the burnable stuff to good use.
Make trash separation mandatory and give people something for the effort. A power rebate perhaps. Humans will always make trash, so it is renewable. It does not require digging up the planet, nor does it require crazy chemicals, or radioactive waste. If you can clean coal smoke, you should be able to clean trash smoke.
I know that there are such things as clean coal plants. I live less than 10 miles away from one. The people in my community work at the coal mine, down the road, and dig it up and haul it to the power plant. The only thing that comes out of that chimney is steam. Clean steam. No one that I know of has gotten sick from the plant, which is a thing one can't say for the uranium miners who dug up the earth here in the 1940's. Our power plant, right here in Nucla, Colorado, doesn't smell, it doesn't make you sick and it burns like a mother-fucker. Unfortunately, in the name of profits, the power generated here doesn't stay here. So we still pay top dollar for it. We have to import our power from elsewhere. The power we generate typically goes to Arizona and New Mexico. Texas or some place generates power and sends it here. How stupid is that?
I burn trash to save money on landfill fees. Why not use that trash to generate some power? I burn wood to heat my home, and if I could, I'd burn trash for that too. I just don't know how since the maker of my wood burner specifically states not to burn trash in the fire box. Probably because people would throw plastic in there. I don't know.
If there is anyone out there who can give me any information on this subject, I'd appreciate it. Like I said, just a thought.