Advantages and Disadvantages of Incineration | What is Incineration? Pros and Cons, Benefits and Drawbacks

Advantages and Disadvantages of Incineration 2022: The whole world is developing on various levels, for example, the standard of living of people, the infrastructure, the market, the services, etc. Along with this, a negative factor is also developing in our environment and that is the waste produced by various levels. This waste is either dumped on the land or in the sea and is burned sometimes which can even cause pollution. The main cause of any pollution is the waste that is produced by the industries, households, and factories. These are major causes of polluting land, water, soil, and air are these non-biodegradable waste. One of the major steps taken by people to reduce waste is incineration. Let us see what incineration is.

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What is Incineration? Advantages and Disadvantages of Incineration 2022

Incineration is the method of combustion and treatment of waste which is converted into gaseous compounds on burning at high temperatures. This process reduces the volume of waste by 70-90%. It is also described as a thermal treatment in industries as it uses high temperatures for the treatment of waste. Sometimes in industries, the heat generated by incineration also leads to electricity generation. In the process not only gas is produced but also ash of the waste product is produced along with heat. This gas is also known as flue gas and must be cleaned before releasing it into the atmosphere. The ashes produced are also inorganic. It is popular in countries like Japan, Singapore, and the Netherlands where land is less scarce. Although it is one of the ways to reduce wastage, it still has a few advantages and a few disadvantages too.

• Advantages of Incineration
• Disadvantages of Incineration
• Comparison Table on Advantages and Disadvantages of Incineration
• FAQs on Pros and Cons of Incineration

Advantages of Incineration

Listed are a few advantages of Incineration.

• 1 Land space is utilized efficiently: Since waste is reduced in the form of ashes and gases thus the waste volume reduces up to 70-90% and land can be utilized for different purposes. As we see in the world many countries like Japan, and Switzerland whose land area is smaller as compared to their population and industries. Therefore they need to formulate various effective and efficient land sustaining measures. One of these is creating land space for industries and residences and incineration helps bro achieve this the most.
• Electricity is produced: The process of incineration involves the creation of a lot of heat energy. This heat energy is used by many industries for generating electricity. In this way burning waste products produced in the process of industrial activity is used for creating energy resources which in turn makes it an effective process.
• Treatment of groundwater contamination: Groundwater is the major source of drinking water for people nowadays. If groundwater will get contaminated then very limited options will be left for people to drink water. Therefore groundwater must be treated and incineration helps in the reduction of groundwater contamination.
• Low carbon traces: Since incineration reduces the waste volume by up to 90%. Thus the carbon traces or contents of the waste produced in the form of flue gas or ashes are less and thus reducing the pollution of an area. The environment is saved a lot with the incineration process. Although the ashes produced are inorganic, it forms a very small part of the whole waste incinerated.
• Diseases are controlled: The waste produced by industries is harmful to everyone who is nearby the area. The place near industries becomes disease-prone areas. People are not willing to reside near the industries; these people have to shift to another place. To reduce this possibility incineration is used to control diseases caused due to harmful waste of industries.
• Plants can be located even near residential areas: From the above point it is clear that incineration helps in controlling diseases thus seeing a positive environment for living, in the area where industries use incineration to reduce waste people prefer to reside. Therefore plants can be located near the residence of people.

Disadvantages of Incineration

Listed are the disadvantages of Incineration.

• Costly: The incinerated plant setup requires huge investment as the main plant also has to build extra plants for burning waste material. The infrastructure cost of incinerated plants is expensive. Besides, it also requires a trained personnel team and the cost of operations is very high.
• The energy requirement is high: The energy required to incinerate the waste material is more therefore power consumption is more. Again adding to the expense of the business.
• Labour must be skilled: Labour required to operate the machine have to be trained enough to develop the skill to make the machine operate. This is one of the shortcomings because not every time one may get skilled labour. They have to be either trained by the employer himself or they have to pay a huge amount to hire well-trained experienced labour.
• Chemicals released in form of gas can be strong pollutants: Industries are the major source of environmental pollution as plants release various harmful gases into the atmosphere, in the same way, incinerated plants release acid gases, nitrogen oxides, heavy metals, etc. Making the environment unhealthy to live in. It has been seen that in the areas where people live in a slum and cannot raise their voices against the strong powerful person, setting these plants is easy.
• Everything cannot be burned: Even after burning waste the pollutants are not necessarily burned completely. The pollutants like heavy metals and ashes are still harmful to the environment. Only the portion left after the burning of waste can lead to various pollution and diseases.
• Health is affected: There are various diseases like cancer, birth defects, reproductive dysfunction, and other health hazards recorded on account of the incinerated plant. Various respiratory diseases have also been accounted for due to incinerated plants.

Comparison Table on Advantages and Disadvantages of Incineration

Below is the comparison table for the advantages and disadvantages of incineration.

FAQs on Pros and Cons of Incineration

Question 1.
What is VOC produced during incineration?

Answer:
VOCs are the volatile organic material released during the burning of waste.

Question 2.
What are the effects of incineration?

Answer:
Various cancer, birth-related, and respiratory-related diseases are the major effects of incineration.

Question 3.
Why is the incineration of waste harmful?

Answer:
Waste incineration is harmful as it not only produces various air pollutants, and heavy metals as by-products but also affects the health of the person and causes them various diseases, and also pollutes the environment.