Title: For Air Pollution, Trash Is a Burning Problem | Climate Central
Headings: For Air Pollution, Trash Is a Burning Problem
For Air Pollution, Trash Is a Burning Problem
‘First Best Guess’
What’s in the Emissions
Just a Starting Point

Content: For Air Pollution, Trash Is a Burning Problem | Climate Central
For Air Pollution, Trash Is a Burning Problem
By Andrea Thompson
Follow @AndreaTWeather
Published: September 2nd, 2014
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. Trash burning on the outskirts of Mexico City during an effort to measure emissions from the burning. Click image to enlarge. Credit: Ted Christian
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.” Ghana, Nepal, Mexico and other developing countries often lack the tax bases and infrastructure needed to put such systems into place.