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Waste treatment

  • Incinerators: “Burning waste for energy recovery costs nearly 4 times more than solar power and wind energy (onshore), and costs more than twice as much as natural gas; Waste-to-energy incineration is even more expensive than coal power by 25%.” The High Cost of Waste Incineration. GAIA report, by Doun Moon

  • Recycling “Only 9% of all plastic ever produced has been ‘recycled’; another 12% has been incinerated. The rest has gone to landfills, or been left to its own devices” Gabrielle Hecht 

  • Recycling institutionalises disposables and single-use items … is an industrial process, it necessitates expenditures of energy and virgin materials, and produces pollutants, greenhouse gases and waste

  • In Europe less than 20 percent of the e-waste is collected and recycled