The second installment looks at the pressures to end the use of landfills . If you have smoked a cigarette, or even watched someone smoking one, you have witnessed the process of incineration in one of its simplest forms. There is a commonality here. The gases produced in MSW incineration and cigarette smoke share 4000 known chemicals. The toxins most common to both are carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, followed closely by sulphur dioxide, nitrous oxides and other noxious substances.
Most cigarettes have a primary filtering system attached to the end of the burn tube.
The secondary filters are human lungs. Residual toxins are released in ash, exhaled gas, and smoke that never reaches the filters. Environmentally, this is not an efficient system. The combustion of MSW in large-scale incinerators is regulated by governments, and the equipment is designed to filter the concentration of toxins before they can be released into the environment. Proponents believe incineration is an efficient system, and a safe way to dispose of waste.