be part of a circular economy?
It is possible to burn biomass (wood, biofuels, cardboard, etc) in a circular economy if the activity provides financially for an expansion of new ecosystems (tree planting, new crops, extended wilderness areas etc) sufficient to reabsorb the combustion gases. However the burning of mixed wastes produces hundreds of different compounds including many with no opportunities for being reabsorbed into nature as a resource (though they are absorbed into people as a toxin). Mixed waste incineration is invariably an outcome from waste management driven by the need for disposal but no actual effort at sustainability. Refuse Derived ‘Fuels’ are composed of mixed wastes which could otherwise be recycled, reused or composted. The small proportion of carbon-based products which cannot be recycled are suitable for forms of gasification.
