Can the ashes from a waste to energy incinerator plant be harmful?

Question

i what to know if the ashes is harmful to the enviroment?

Answer 1

Yes.   Lord knows what is in the waste.   Besides, when you burn stuff, the odd collection of carbons combine to produce small amounts of carcinogens.   The ash in your BBQ has some of those carcinogens as well.    Breathing it might give you diseases like coal miners lung or atleast something equivalent.    It's dependent on how you are exposed to the stuff.     How dangerous it is, I have no clue though.   Everything has a certain amount of danger.

Answer 2

If what is burned contains mercury, cadmium, lead,  heavy metals, etc. then yes.

To be safe, I wouldn't use these ashes for anything.

Answer 3

The ash is harmful if they are put into a landfill or other dump site.

That ash, however, can be used to make many things including concrete used to pave roads and driveways.  

Reduce, reuse, recycle.  

Great question!

Answer 4

They should know exactly what is in the ash and dispose of it properly; such as a lined landfill if need be.  A properly operated incinerator is not a bad thing.

Answer 5

Ash from incinerators goes through a TCLP (Toxicity Characteristic Leachate Procedure) to check if it's hazardous or not.  That test checks for any hazards which have the possibility of leaching into the groundwater supply.  If the analytical shows a potential hazard, the ash will be disposed of as a hazardous waste.  If not, it can be put into a regular landfill.

EDIT:

By the way...  My "source" is experience.  I used to work at a hazardous waste incinerator, so I know about the sampling and analytical that is performed on the ash at those facilities - and a municipal incinerator is probably required to perform the same sampling/analysis.  I've also got a degree in hazardous materials.