Questions on Coal.?

Question

How is coal reused/recycled? How is coal accessed? And How is coal overused and being depleted?

Answer 1

Coal is used almost exclusively as an energy source and most of that use is to generate electricity in coal-fired power plants. Coal is burned in power plants and therefore is consumed. There is nothing left to recycle. Coal is not reused or recycled.

Coal is a mineral found in the ground. It is mined using heavy digging equipment.

Coal is a very dirty fuel and creates many pollutants including carbon dioxide, which is the primary greenhouse gas causing global warming. Because many millions of tons of coal are burned every year the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is rising at an extremely fast rate and both causing global warming and making worse every year. That is the primary overuse problem with coal.

Coal reserves are very large and are expected to last centuries. However due to global warming we will most certainly want to stop burying coal well before we run out. Therefore at least world wide there is not depletion problem with coal. That said there are parts of the world that are depleting their local coal supplies. Brittan is one example, they being the first country to start exploiting coal on a large scale basis.