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If, in real life, the plant had been built prior to 1989, the plastic toys would have produced a nasty dose of dioxins and furans

Dioxins-”A highly toxic compound produced as a by-product in some manufacturing processes, notably herbicide production and paper bleaching. It is a serious and persistent environmental pollutant. A heterocyclic organochlorine compound; alternative name: 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo para dioxin (abbreviation: TCDD) ; chemical formula: C12H4O2Cl4”
Furans-”A colourless volatile liquid with a planar unsaturated five-membered ring in its molecule. Chemical formula: C4H4O”
Another way of stating that would be “toxic emissions from combustion taking place in the present of chlorine”

Before then, few people were aware that such chemicals were a serious health hazard

“Industry subsequently spent billions retrofitting incinerators with activated-carbon injections”
“Thanks to new regulations, the emission of such toxic chemicals from waste processing has been reduced a thousandfold”

“Puente Hills Landfill in Los Angeles, the largest of the 1,900 municipal landfills in America, is over 500-feet high”
This landfill can generate electricity for 70,000 homes with its methane that it produces

In China they are running out of space for landfills
Although using incinerators is awful for the environment, officials are now having to reconsider the issue of incineration to the non-stop increase of landfill space
WTE plants are saying that they have their incinerators burning at 850 °C, which breaks down the molecular bonds in dioxins and other toxic chemicals, basically stating that having the incinerator at that heat is harmless
Also, “the flue gasses are then cooled in heat exchangers that raise steam to drive the electricity-generating turbines”

flue gases-"A mixture of gases produced by the burning of fuel or other materials in power stations and industrial plants and extracted via ducts"

In order to remove sulphur dioxide as well as various acids and heavy metals from flue gases, the flue gas have to go through a cleaning system that filters fine particles from the flow and then scrubs the gas

TerraCycle Canada is the local version of a global company that has repurposed more than 2.6 billion pieces of food and beverage, office and school supply, e-waste and other hard-to-recycle streams

These collections have raised more than US $8 mil. dollars for charity through its various packaging reclamation programs

TerraCycle will offer the first of 25 markets in which the international company operates to offer a curbside pickup of its recycling programs

22.4 million tons of plastics produced in the United States in 1998, only about 5.4 percent were recovered for recycling
Plastics used in durable goods (such as cars, electronics, and appliances) account for the largest proportion by weight of plastics in U.S. municipal solid waste (MSW)
Plastics are difficult to separate and therefore hard to recycle
Separating the plastics can limit the recycling rate
Products often contain as many as 20 different types of plastic materials as well as non-plastic materials such as wood, rubber, glass, and fibers
Operation costs for processing recycled plastics are estimated in the range of 10-20 cents per pound
Recycled plastic resin is competitive with costs for existing virgin plastics
The incinerators are used to burn up garbage but are creating pollution to the environment and also the heat made by the fire is used to create energy
About 50% of the people in Toronto recycle things properly
Compost is mostly contaminated with recycling therefore making the “once recyclable” things not recyclable

Sieben Linden is one of the fastest growing towns in Germany yet it is made completely out wood, straw, and mud which is very eco-friendly
Growing your own food and owning less dramatically reduces waste
It is possible to live green without sacrifice
In the last 20 years the amount of waste made is increasing by 3 percent each year
Collecting garbage less often will make you throw away less
Making people pay per amount of garbage is a solution
Soda cans are half as thick as they were 40 years ago showing that we are trying to improve package size
HP’s laptops are 90% recyclable
There are still many opportunities to improve in electronic waste
Making companies pay for greenhouse gasses can also reduce waste

Provinces with deposits on reusable soda cans collect more of them
Canada collects 97% of beer bottles bought
Alcohol has the highest collection rate
Beer bottle recycling is a really good business because we think we are getting money back
Alberta collects the most bottles because their system is automated
Getting rid of the penny increased the collection rate because companies were forced to give more
Free pick up programs also increased the collection rate

Markham’s street collection garbage bags are now clear
This forces people to recycle due to social pressure
People can see what is in your bag
Garbage collectors can accept or reject depending what is inside the bag
Average weekly household garbage generation has decreased by 15% in the last 3 years because of this
People did not like this because of the worry for “Garbage Police”
But Markham launched an awareness program to make sure the system goes in place