Also known as combustion, the technique of incineration revolves around the controlled burning of the waste. It helps in reducing the volume of waste and saves a great amount of space in the landfills. Burning the municipal solid waste releases some harmful gases that might affect the quality of air.

The fact is that there are no health issues with incineration any more than any other disposal method. If it is combined with energy recovery it is a much better option than landfills.

Incinerators are fundamentally a way of treating waste before landfilling it. Although incineration is often touted as a landfill alternative, the fact is that 25 percent of the weight of incoming trash remains as residual ash that still requires landfilling or disposal.

The major advantage of incineration is that it makes waste management easier and more efficient because incineration can burn up to 90% of the total waste generated and sometimes even more. As a comparison, landfills only allow organic decomposition, so nonorganic waste keeps accumulating.

Please refer to the following link.

https://sciencing.com/landfills-vs-incinerators-5523826.html

I do agree again... but the point is if landfilling should be prohibited when incineration techniques are still economically expensive... What are the options then? Besides, how should we include the emissions of dioxins, furans and other toxic gases in the final decision? Is incineration only an alternative on rich regions?

Landfilling is and will still a final routing for a waste in general, as the residues of the incineration must be confined somewhere. Incineration even if it present a high calorific value, its impact more negatively the environment.

In Morocco, we use only landilling for now, apart from the cement plant incinerators. Its mainly because of the large cost (investment & maintenance) of the incineration method. But also Morocco opted for renewable energy.

Solid landfilling. One day you can use material for regeneration of town streets or roads.

As an Environmentalist, I prefer incineration rather than landfill. The approaches to environmental issues that landfill will produce toxic liquid and that will harm soil components whilst incineration can provide combustion that will help and provide power mechanically. Although that through the incineration process will release some harmful gases that might affect the quality of air, however, as an engineering practitioner, that can be designed to provide clean air. The process can be reuse to provide a sustainable environment.

Hello sir,

In my opinion, landfilling is relatively of lesser cost compared to incineration. In most developing country, landfilling is main final disposal method of waste while in most developed country, incineration and waste to energy facility are the trends. In the Philippines (developing country), landfilling is the one which is being utilized, however, most are still using open dumpsites. The local government units are mandated to renovate and convert open dumpsites into engineered sanitary landfills to lessen ghg emissions and increase recovery of methane. Incineration on the other hand is banned due to low quality of incinerators available, which tends to contribute more pollution. Unless a high quality incinerator with air pollution equipment is installed, which is expensive, I think it is possible. Now with respect to environmental aspect, If incinerator will be used, toxic pollutants such as dioxins and furans should be treated and managed responsibly. Managing pollutants is really costly. It depends on the capacity of a region on which method is viable and cost-effective.

Landfilling is better economically than incineration.

landfill release more nutrients to plants than insiniration with very high temperature (400oC) and lack of O2. Also it is cheaper

Question is not whether to prefer waste incineration before waste landfills. Both soulutions seems to be very bad for the environment. Best solution seem to be "zero waste" management solution designed according local circumstances. This is very big issue to be discussed in several sentences here but there are studies showing big concerns regarding persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in waste incineration residues for example. See e.g. Technical Report Toxic Ash Poisons Our Food Chain

Technical Report Crucial Elements of the Pollutant Release and Transfer Regis...

Technical Report Zero Waste as Best Environmental Practice for Waste Manageme...

Inciniration under no oxigen and high temperature you produce useful product which will improve pH, WHC and yield.