Does the burning of plastic generate toxic fumes?
Ans. NO.To a large extent, post-consumer waste is made up of grocery or polyethylene bags. The chemical structure of polyethylene is made up only by carbon & hydrogen atoms. Anyone, who has done elementary chemistry will know that burning a carbon hydrogen molecular chain will generate carbon-dioxide and water vapour. A product made from PVC, when burnt in an open fire will emit hydrogen chloride fumes which are pungent. In fact this property has a singnificant advantage in retarding propagation of a flame when used as a sheath in a power cables. Normally a PVC product or a post consumer pack is extremely rare, in Municipal solid waste. The toxic fumes which the public wrongly believe are generated from plastics, are the result of burning materials contained in the bag, to get ride of industrial wastes.
