| GRN Recycle Talk FAQ Answer |
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 98 11:53 WET DST From: FRIEDMAN.FRED@EPAMAIL.EPA.GOV (Fred Friedman) Subject: Re: Is it better to burn paper and compost or take to the landfill?
April 7, 1998
As you are probably aware, it is better to not produce the waste, then to reuse it or get someone else who can reuse it, or make something useful from it first. If you can't recycle it, then you are down at the bottom of the waste management hierarchy.
There is only so much paper that you can shred and add to a compost mix before you are creating a miniature landfill. Yes, composting is preferable to landfilling, but you can only compost a great amount of it with an even greater amount of other compostables.
We can conceive of conditions where landfilling or incineration would be the preferable way to go. However, generally if the choice is compost + incineration vs. landfilling, the former is preferable since you will get at least some return in composting and in incineration if, as most incineration of MSW occurs, what you are really doing is creating a bit of WTE energy.
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