Waste OF Energy
Incinerating is to burn something completely, so basically waste incineration is burning trash. You might ask how that relates to recycling, so I found out in my research about the waste to energy concept that basically it is the process of burning municipal solid waste that we often refer to trash or garbage, to produce steam that later is used to generate electricity.
The concept that often was being pictured as a sustainable way to get a clean energy that is the energy which was produced without any carbon footprint. As I dived into my research, I found out that it is not exactly the case, it seems like incinerators produce a smoke that contains harmful acid gases, carcinogen dioxin, particulates, heavy metals, and nitrogen oxide, all those gasses are harmful to the environment also there are possible public health risk issues to the communities that live in the proximity of the waste incinerators. Not to mention that it is expensive to build at the first place and picturing this concept by media as one of the solutions of global waste problem could encourage society to consume even more.
In the begining of my animation I am providing the definition of Waste to Energy concept.
Later I am showing real newspapers headline where I belive that WTE concept has been greenwashed
In the last part of the intro I am showing fake headlines going into the future and starting my ‘What if’ Scenario
Project Goals
My final project is focused on waste incineration and to be more particular I want to focus mostly on Waste to Energy concept that often has been falsely portrayed as clean way of producing energy, furthermore I want to highlight the problem of over-consumption and try to make the viewer of my animation to reflect on waste disposal and consumption habits.
In the recent weeks, I have been working on how I can convey my message which is:
1. Debunking the myth that Waste to Energy concept is a clean way of producing the energy
2. Make the viewer to reflect on waste disposal and consumption habits.
3. Highlighting that the answer to the global scale trash problem lies in circular economy and Waste to Energy concept is based on linear economy.
Two skeletons symbolizing society lured/deceived by the greenwashing in media
The headears that were praising WTE concept now belong to past
By showing dystopian world full of trash, I wanted to show what could happen to the world if we bet on WTE as our source of energy
In my project I want to show the viewer the risks of pursuing the Waste to Energy concept, and to be more precise I want to show the risks of pursuing the path of consumption and consumerism. By showing the dystopian near future that is full of social decay and destruction and make it clear that it was caused by our consumption habits and misleading green-washing. Furthermore, I want to open space for the discussion about the Waste to Energy concept and more importantly about how we can avoid such a scenario that is shown in the animation by applying the principles of circular economy.
See the film: https://youtu.be/VdBI89SwgmY
