Can you burn the film?
4 June 2019 17:23
// Useful information about our products
What to do with used film? What are dioxins?
Can you burn the film?
Innovation Director of NPF "SHAR", candidate of technical sciences, V.S. Bugorkova
What to do? Burn it together with the crop residues? The film burns perfectly and can be a good fuel. Some time ago, there was an opinion that the burning of polyethylene film produces only carbon dioxide and water not to harm the combustion process.
However, a deeper consideration of this issue shows that even when burning simple polyethylene film without any additives, it is necessary to create a special combustion regime so that products of incomplete combustion of polyethylene (benzopyrens, carbon monoxide, unsaturated hydrocarbons, other toxic substances) would not enter the atmosphere. Such combustion mode can be provided only in special waste incinerators with afterburning chambers, flue gas cleaning systems, and continuous gas emissions monitoring. Under the Law "On the Protection of Atmospheric Air" adopted in 1999, only an enterprise with special equipment and who has received a license to perform this type of activity may incinerate any waste.
It should be noted that nowadays gardeners are offered an increasingly wide range of films. They include greenhouse films, films for mulching, films for ponds, etc. To make the films last long and please amateur gardeners, they contain special additives: stabilizers, dyes, slip additives, additives that give hydrophilic polymer properties, etc. These additives have a very complex chemical composition, contain various chemical compounds and compositions. The films are approved for use in agriculture and are harmless in use.
Long-lasting films from the environmental perspective are preferable to simple polyethylene film, which serves one season. Waste polyethylene film is littered with large areas in gardening. And with stabilized film, which will last you 3, 5, or more years, the environmental load will be just as much less. But even these films will eventually get old, and we'll tell them, "Thank you very much, you've saved us effort, time, and money!", and we'll be faced with the problem of choosing again: "to incinerate or not to incinerate?" And again, the stereotypical decision may come to mind - burn it!
However, it is even more dangerous to incinerate complex films than simple polyethylene films. What is formed during the burning of such films, and their range is expanding every year, can only be determined by special studies. And it should be borne in mind that different ratios and combinations of incinerated materials can produce very complex gaseous products of unpredictable composition.
We especially want to warn gardeners: in any case, do not throw away on unauthorized landfills and do not burn films made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The films have a whole "bouquet" of organic compounds of different hazard classes, and most importantly - chlorine. If PVC is burnt, extremely harmful and poisonous for all living substances are formed: benzpyrens, phosgene, hydrogen chloride, etc. Benzpyren are known to be very active carcinogens. Phosgene is a chemical warfare agent used in warfare. Hydrogen chloride combined with water vapor converts to hydrochloric acid. When hydrochloric acid vapors are inhaled, irritation of mucous membranes of the nose, eyes, corneal clouding occurs.
And these are not all the dangers associated with the combustion of PVC films. When they burn, they release into the atmosphere organochlorine compounds - dioxins, which are a cellular poison, included in the food chain of living organisms. There were no such substances before; they were created, without expecting it, by the man himself. Dioxins decompose extremely slowly (in many cases more than 100 years).
Dioxins enter water and soil, from where they inevitably enter our food supply and accumulate in fatty tissues. Their effects on the human body are manifold. These organochlorine compounds suppress the immune system, are carcinogens, lead to early aging, cause genetic changes, suppress human reproduction, affect the psyche, etc.
Dioxins are 200 times more poisonous than curare poison and 100,000 times more toxic than cyanide. There is an opinion that dioxin danger is not inferior to radiation danger. Not without reason, the whole civilized world takes active measures to protect the environment from dioxins. And our city has a special program "Dioxins", which provides for various measures to reduce the release of dioxins into the atmosphere.
When you walk past unauthorized dumpsites in gardening communities, you see just about everything there is! According to estimates made by ecologists, a significant part of such dumps are polymer waste, such as films, bottles, disposable dishes, toys, buckets, TV and refrigerator housings, and so on. The polymeric materials from which these products are made are diverse: polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene plastics, polyethylene terephthalate, PVC, polyurethanes, phenoplastics, rubber products, etc. The landfills contain almost all the materials that the polymer industry uses to make consumer products. Now imagine what is released by the simultaneous combustion of these polymers containing various additives!
The conclusion is inevitable and unambiguous: don't burn film and polymers yourself, and don't throw them in landfills! Stop those who do it!
What's the answer, you ask? The solutions are simple. It is better to use durable films, saving you from solving this problem for several years. Even after using garden plots, long-lasting films are much easier to recycle and use recycled polymer raw materials. Now, more and more companies recycle waste polymers and make a variety of products from them.
One more piece of advice - achieve organized garbage removal from dacha and garden plots. In the extreme case, when there are no special places for waste collection and removal nearby - take them to the city, to the city container. If the greenhouse film serves more than one year, then you will not need to do it every year, as before. The city bins waste goes to recycling plants, where some of the polymers after sorting are recycled and used. Polymers that are not recyclable go to specially equipped city and regional landfills and do not litter the areas around the city and our garden plots.
If we want to live in harmony with nature and breathe clean air, we cannot afford to be indifferent to the reality around us and mindlessly burn plastic films.
Innovation Director of NPF "SHAR", candidate of technical sciences, V.S. Bugorkova
Published in "Flora-price" magazine, 2003, Saint Petersburg
What to do? Burn it together with the crop residues? The film burns perfectly and can be a good fuel. Some time ago, there was an opinion that the burning of polyethylene film produces only carbon dioxide and water not to harm the combustion process.
However, a deeper consideration of this issue shows that even when burning simple polyethylene film without any additives, it is necessary to create a special combustion regime so that products of incomplete combustion of polyethylene (benzopyrens, carbon monoxide, unsaturated hydrocarbons, other toxic substances) would not enter the atmosphere. Such combustion mode can be provided only in special waste incinerators with afterburning chambers, flue gas cleaning systems, and continuous gas emissions monitoring. Under the Law "On the Protection of Atmospheric Air" adopted in 1999, only an enterprise with special equipment and who has received a license to perform this type of activity may incinerate any waste.
It should be noted that nowadays gardeners are offered an increasingly wide range of films. They include greenhouse films, films for mulching, films for ponds, etc. To make the films last long and please amateur gardeners, they contain special additives: stabilizers, dyes, slip additives, additives that give hydrophilic polymer properties, etc. These additives have a very complex chemical composition, contain various chemical compounds and compositions. The films are approved for use in agriculture and are harmless in use.
Long-lasting films from the environmental perspective are preferable to simple polyethylene film, which serves one season. Waste polyethylene film is littered with large areas in gardening. And with stabilized film, which will last you 3, 5, or more years, the environmental load will be just as much less. But even these films will eventually get old, and we'll tell them, "Thank you very much, you've saved us effort, time, and money!", and we'll be faced with the problem of choosing again: "to incinerate or not to incinerate?" And again, the stereotypical decision may come to mind - burn it!
However, it is even more dangerous to incinerate complex films than simple polyethylene films. What is formed during the burning of such films, and their range is expanding every year, can only be determined by special studies. And it should be borne in mind that different ratios and combinations of incinerated materials can produce very complex gaseous products of unpredictable composition.
We especially want to warn gardeners: in any case, do not throw away on unauthorized landfills and do not burn films made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The films have a whole "bouquet" of organic compounds of different hazard classes, and most importantly - chlorine. If PVC is burnt, extremely harmful and poisonous for all living substances are formed: benzpyrens, phosgene, hydrogen chloride, etc. Benzpyren are known to be very active carcinogens. Phosgene is a chemical warfare agent used in warfare. Hydrogen chloride combined with water vapor converts to hydrochloric acid. When hydrochloric acid vapors are inhaled, irritation of mucous membranes of the nose, eyes, corneal clouding occurs.
And these are not all the dangers associated with the combustion of PVC films. When they burn, they release into the atmosphere organochlorine compounds - dioxins, which are a cellular poison, included in the food chain of living organisms. There were no such substances before; they were created, without expecting it, by the man himself. Dioxins decompose extremely slowly (in many cases more than 100 years).
Dioxins enter water and soil, from where they inevitably enter our food supply and accumulate in fatty tissues. Their effects on the human body are manifold. These organochlorine compounds suppress the immune system, are carcinogens, lead to early aging, cause genetic changes, suppress human reproduction, affect the psyche, etc.
Dioxins are 200 times more poisonous than curare poison and 100,000 times more toxic than cyanide. There is an opinion that dioxin danger is not inferior to radiation danger. Not without reason, the whole civilized world takes active measures to protect the environment from dioxins. And our city has a special program "Dioxins", which provides for various measures to reduce the release of dioxins into the atmosphere.
When you walk past unauthorized dumpsites in gardening communities, you see just about everything there is! According to estimates made by ecologists, a significant part of such dumps are polymer waste, such as films, bottles, disposable dishes, toys, buckets, TV and refrigerator housings, and so on. The polymeric materials from which these products are made are diverse: polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene plastics, polyethylene terephthalate, PVC, polyurethanes, phenoplastics, rubber products, etc. The landfills contain almost all the materials that the polymer industry uses to make consumer products. Now imagine what is released by the simultaneous combustion of these polymers containing various additives!
The conclusion is inevitable and unambiguous: don't burn film and polymers yourself, and don't throw them in landfills! Stop those who do it!
What's the answer, you ask? The solutions are simple. It is better to use durable films, saving you from solving this problem for several years. Even after using garden plots, long-lasting films are much easier to recycle and use recycled polymer raw materials. Now, more and more companies recycle waste polymers and make a variety of products from them.
One more piece of advice - achieve organized garbage removal from dacha and garden plots. In the extreme case, when there are no special places for waste collection and removal nearby - take them to the city, to the city container. If the greenhouse film serves more than one year, then you will not need to do it every year, as before. The city bins waste goes to recycling plants, where some of the polymers after sorting are recycled and used. Polymers that are not recyclable go to specially equipped city and regional landfills and do not litter the areas around the city and our garden plots.
If we want to live in harmony with nature and breathe clean air, we cannot afford to be indifferent to the reality around us and mindlessly burn plastic films.
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