# What if we just burned all our trash - everything?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-just-burned-all-our-trash-everything/791653>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 19, 2017, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-just-burned-all-our-trash-everything/791653 "2017-07-19T14:54:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-just-burned-all-our-trash-everything/791653/21 "2017-07-19T19:13:16Z")

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> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> They tried that in Albany back in the 80s. They were supposed to burn trash and use the heat to create electricity. The big issue was what to do with the ash, which had concentrated heavy metals in it, among other things. Then something went wrong and it spewed soot all over the city for a couple of days until they could shut it down.
> 
> They stopped using it in 1994.

[Minneapolis has an incinerator that is one of the top five point-source emitters for criteria pollutants.](https://www.minnpost.com/community-voices/2013/06/garbage-burning-emits-significant-amounts-toxic-pollutants-particulates)

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**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-just-burned-all-our-trash-everything/791653/22 "2017-07-19T19:37:21Z")

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Here’s a link to one of those pilot plans turning trash (plastics/organics) into oil. They claim it doesn’t need presorting.

> **[A New Player In Oil: The Garbage Dump](https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelkanellos/2012/03/15/a-new-player-in-oil-the-garbage-dump/#71058d417f22)**
>
> An Agylix plant Chris Ulum, chief executive at Agilyx, says he knows a place where crude oil can be extracted economically, easily and in an environmentally friendly manner. It’s called the municipal dump. The Beaverton, Oregon-based company cooks...

Also Sweden is a net importer of garbage to fuel their trash burning heating plants. I do believe that they do a lot of presorting, though.

> **[Dirty power: Sweden wants your garbage for energy](http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/3/27/sweden-wants-your-garbage-for-energy.html)**
>
> Trash is becoming a fast-growing import in the Scandinavian country, which turns it into heat for people's homes

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