CO2 Emmisons from household gabage

6 Posts
Nov 28, 2007 03:20 pm
CO2 Emmisons from household gabage

What is the lesser of two evils?  I live in a rural area where burning your trash is OK.  So what is the lesser of two evils (CO2 wise)?  Burning trash or hauling it 12 miles to a landfill.  Any thoughts
 
97 Posts
Nov 28, 2007 04:21 pm
Re: CO2 Emmisons from household gabage

Hi Toni.  I also live rural, and this is my thought on the sujbect:  Wood and paper products release Co2 during decomposition anyway.  Its the reverse process of growing the tree which takes in Co2 and releases oxygen.  Burning only accelerates this process which will occur naturally anyway. The difference is the particulate contamination from burning, but I think most of this settles out as ash and returns to the soil.  Considering the other by-products of fuel combustion in an automobile, your's was a very good question, and leads one to ponder this tradeoff. I will probably continue to burn my paper trash.  Smiles :-)
 
28 Posts
Nov 28, 2007 06:25 pm
Re: CO2 Emmisons from household gabage

Household garbage contains high quantities of zinc, cadmium, lead, magnesium, copper, potassium, barium, and calcium, not to mention whatever gets included in the vast quantites of plastic containers and wrappings we use, much of which is poisonous when burned.  Fortunately much of this can be also be recycled and most of which can't should definitely not be burned.  burning increases the concentration of the  unburnable materials (lead, copper, cadmium) in the ash, so the ash is probably going to be more toxic than leaving those elements where they were in the first place. If recycling is not an option, bury it.  Granted landfills are not the ideal solution.  Recycling is obviously preferred, however many modern landfills are made on tightly compacted clay layers which make migration of harmfull elements into water supplies much more difficult than in past years.  Some landfills can be tapped for the methane they generate after certain areas are filled in and capped off.

I would have thought composting might be an attractive option, especially in rural areas where the space for composting is more than likely available and the composted products can generally be readily used for improvement of existing soils and growing a really nice vege patch.

For some tips on composting see,
http://users.imag.net/~lon.trea/level1.htm
 
6 Posts
Dec 4, 2007 04:15 pm
Re: CO2 Emmisons from household gabage

Thanks for the input, we recycle what we can.  We also have a good size compost set up, we even have a saw dust toilet outhouse.  Unfortunately, I know of no faculties within 100 or miles that recycle plastics.  Our local landfill is not very environmentally up-to-date and it is about a 20 mile round trip for me and my F250 ain't so hot on the MPG either.  Right now we are under a burn ban so I am tearing down my burning pit and trying to find a better disposal process.
 
6 Posts
Dec 4, 2007 04:17 pm
Re: CO2 Emmisons from household gabage

Thanks for the input, I am going to try hauling for a while because of a burn ban.  It also costs $59 a month to get a dumpster out where I live.
 

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