Why not throw all the garbage into the volcano for ... convenience?

Yeah why not? Simply because it can't .

Why can't waste be handled by throwing down volcanoes?

In the US, it is estimated that more than 250 million tons of waste is emitted each year, equivalent to 20kg / person / day. In Vietnam, statistics show that every citizen is responsible for 200kg of garbage per year.

To treat waste, countries around the world often build incinerators. But this also makes many people wonder: Why not throw all the garbage into the volcano for . convenient? Isn't that a natural incinerator?

It is true that if it is possible to dump tons of garbage into volcanoes . it is very convenient, because at least it saves a lot of costs and time to burn. However, the answer is simply . impossible.

The cost will really be huge

Do you think the cost will go down? But it's not because first if you want to throw garbage into a volcano, you'll have to find a "not cool" volcano - that is still active.

In fact, not many people live near volcanoes like that. Therefore, transporting garbage to the crater will take a lot of time, effort, fuel and money , compared to treating garbage in incinerators.

Not all volcanoes are suitable

Even when living near a volcano, there is a fact that not all volcanoes . can be used . Is it when you mention volcanoes, you will think of mountains with slopes, with a fire pit on the top like the one below?

And inside that hole will be a lava lake like this.

Does it look perfect to dispose of garbage? But in fact, not all volcanoes are the same. Experts say the most suitable volcano for garbage disposal is the "volcano shield" - volcanoes with flat slopes and low slopes, with lava spraying slowly through crevices. on the surface of the Earth.

A shield-shaped volcano - shaped like a warrior's old shield.

Kilauea volcano - shield volcano in Hawaii (USA).

However, most of the volcanoes on Earth are "stratovolcano" - a high conical volcano . These types of volcanoes tend to "explode" suddenly when the hot air pressure and lava inside become too high . Or, more briefly, you throw garbage on a "sensitive" volcano like this, you'll . die hard.

Throwing garbage into volcanoes . can cause disaster

But even if you qualify: living near a shield volcano, such as the Kilauea peak in Hawaii, it is extremely dangerous to dispose of garbage into a volcano.

The first is the amount of volcanic toxic gas - including many gases formed when burning sulfur such as H ₂ S, SO ₂ . enough to bring a person to the god of death because within 1 minute if inhaled too much.

In addition, there is a very important reason that you should look in the video below - about throwing a garbage bag down at the lava in Hawaii.

You can see, when a garbage bag with a normal temperature falls into lava can cause a terrible eruption. And the garbage bag in the video weighs only 30kg.

As shown below, only one landslide in the Halemaʻumaʻu area of ​​Kilauea volcano blew up lava over 80m. So now imagine how many tons of garbage will fall into?

That's not to mention the emissions of this process will go straight into the atmosphere, causing great harm to the environment. In countries around the world, the incineration system always comes with a system to prevent and filter toxic gases before being discharged into the environment. Therefore, burning garbage with volcanoes is not feasible.

In addition, some argue that volcanoes can be used to treat hazardous waste, including nuclear waste . Unfortunately, the average temperature of lava is only 700 to 1,250 degrees Celsius - still not enough to melt these rubbish (melting temperature of Uranium is nearly 3,000 degrees Celsius).