Is there any such thing as an in home incinerator that burns plastics safely?

No. And burning paper and wood is technically polluting.

No, when plastics are burned they give off toxins including dioxin and heavy metals.

Best to send to recycle center.

What @hat said. That said, you have to heat your house. Don’t burn plastics, though.

Yes, if you invent a non-toxic way to burn plastic, please let the world know (after you get a patent and register copyright). You will become a billionaire.

The uncomfortable truth is we can’t effectively recycle plastic well and burning it is bad. The best place for it is in the landfill. At least for now, until we find better ways and dig it back out and use it later.

I know burning plastic is toxic. But then i thought. about nuclear reactors. How do they cycle the toxins out?

Should campfires and wood burning fireplaces be illegal @hat?

Somebody get LuckyGuy for me!

@Dutchess_III: ”Should campfires and wood burning fireplaces be illegal @hat?”

There are towns that have tried to put bans/limits on fireplaces. And the nicer towns around here don’t allow fire pits or open burning. There are serious threats to health and the environment due to both of these, but people think that it’s “natural”, so they generally don’t see a problem with it. They like science when it matches with their lifestyle, but generally reject it when it means that they have to evaluate their own actions.

My town saw a huge increase of fire pits back around 2010–2011, when they became very popular. The air quality is pretty rough now. During the summer, when the air temp cools, you have to close your windows, rather than cool down your house, because the house will fill with smoke.

https://www.epa.gov/burnwise/wood-smoke-and-your-health

—@hat. Semi-serious question, is there anything you consider fun in your life?—

Us @janbb! We’re a.never ending blast!

@janbb – Absolutely! Being outside and breathing fresh air is certainly one of them.

@hat In the SF Bay Area we have “spare the air” days where open fires are prohibited because of air quality. It’s enforced—it’s not like anybody is going to cite me if I’m using my barbecue but it’s considered courtesy not to use them.

^ Cities have become the place for fresh air. I have a good friend whose asthma is worse than mine. He moved close to the city with a strict policy against open burning so he could limit his trips to the emergency room. He’s occasionally unable to visit some of us because we live in the suburbs, which now have pretty poor air quality.

@hat When our air quality is bad it’s usually because of forest fires combined with some sort of inversion layer. But city air has gotten A LOT cleaner in the last several decades. Much of it in California is more rigorous emission standards. I remember growing up LA was unbearable. Now it’s hazy but much better.

Industrial burning used to be a lot worse. Most of the coal fired power plants have been replaced with natural gas. Residential fire pits, wood stoves and BBQ smokers are not really much of a problem. It’s usually forest fires and vehicle traffic here causing haze and poor air quality. I do love the smell of a good wood fire.

I remember growing up LA was unbearable. When I was a kid our family trips often took us through Gary Indiana and its steel mills. The air was yellow and stank, even with the car windows rolled up.

Thanks to 50 years of air regulations, that experience is a distant memory in the US.

@Caravanfan

“I remember growing up LA was unbearable.”

It wasn’t as bad during our “winters”, so it was rarely bearable. ;-)

I remember one day in Sept 75 I told my friend that it was like living inside a petrochemical “onion”.

I think our AQ started to improve in January, 1977, when the AQMD was established.
I was 30 and I guess you were 12 or 13.