Title: Burning Trash Bad for Humans and Global Warming - Scientific American
Headings: Burning Trash Bad for Humans and Global Warming
Burning Trash Bad for Humans and Global Warming
Smoldering garbage turns out to be a significant source of the greenhouse gases causing climate change

Content: Burning Trash Bad for Humans and Global Warming - Scientific American
Sustainability
Burning Trash Bad for Humans and Global Warming
Smoldering garbage turns out to be a significant source of the greenhouse gases causing climate change
By Andrea Thompson, Climate Central on September 2, 2014
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When atmospheric scientist Christine Wiedinmyer first went to Ghana in 2011 to investigate air pollution produced by burning different materials — from crop stubble to coal used in stoves — she noticed an unexpected potential source: burning piles of trash. Like most residents of developed nations who hadn’t traveled broadly in the developing world, the sight of smoldering rubbish piles, which contain anything from food waste to plastics to electronics, came as a surprise to Wiedinmyer, who works at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo.
“It’s just not something that I’ve been exposed to,” she told Climate Central. In the U.S., “we have waste management. We have people who pick up trash and take it away.” Advertisement
Ghana, Nepal, Mexico and other developing countries often lack the tax bases and infrastructure needed to put such systems into place. So residents and governments often burn piles of their trash in the open; removing the garbage from the land but transferring it to the skies. Some 40 percent of the world’s waste may be dealt with in this way. Wiedinmyer wondered if this burning waste could be an underappreciated source of air pollutants, from greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide to tiny particles and toxic chemicals that can harm human lungs.