Demand for plastic resins in the United States is expected to hit 76 billion pounds by the year 2000 1. Consumers like the convenience, strength, and design flexibility that plastics provide. The U.S. currently generates about 320 billion pounds of municipal solid waste (MSW), or postconsumer waste, with about 85 of this disposed of in landfills. Projections by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimate that MSW will reach 380 billion pounds by the year 2000 while a third of the landfills are expected to close in the next 5 years 2. While plastics make up only about 7 of solid wastes they are a very visible 30 of MSW. Although recycling efforts may affect the EPA projection for year 2000-especially for metals, glass, and paper in the MSW stream-with only 1 of plastics recovered in 1989, considerable progress is needed with plastics. With projected throw-away plastics waste of 38 billion pounds for year 2000 (up from 22 billion pounds of plastics waste in 1987) and an expected loss of a third of the landfills 2, increased use of incineration will probably be employed for plastics and other wastes. This presents potentially serious problems from the viewpoint of heavy metals emissions, the subject of the present paper.
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