Identification of pollution of incinerators in atmospheric emissions: case study of moscow and the region

The disposal of municipal waste by modern methods is based on the scientific and technical achievements of the natural sciences, and allows in addition to the destruction of garbage, to receive electricity, heat, as well as processed products: fuel, oils, feed, compost, however, can have an adverse effect on the environment. Disposal at incinerators is associated with the difficulties of the emission control process since incinerators to avoid unnecessary logistics costs, are placed in areas with a high population density — where there are many industrial enterprises and vehicles that distort the statistics of emissions from incineration. Objective: to develop a method for identifying substances in the atmospheric air associated with emissions from incinerators. Materials and methods: different sources of atmospheric emissions have different values of the ratios of concentrations of simple substances carried by air. To assess them, it is necessary to take high-quality air samples and analyze them using modern measuring instruments. A complex system of state environmental monitoring has been created in Moscow, consisting of subsystems that study various aspects of pollution, which allows collecting and statistical analysis of any data. Results: determining the source of pollution correlated with waste incineration is possible by comparing concentration ratios, that is the chemical composition of pollution in certain ratios of absolute indicators allows identifying the source. Indicator ratios of incinerator elements: Cd/Cu, Cd/Pb, Cr/Pb (4-5 times more than in air without pollution and even more than from transport), Cu/Pb (comparable to air without pollution but 3 times less than from transport).