Humanity produces a lot of garbage and places a heavy burden on the environment. What if we dumped our waste into active volcanoes, where it would sink into the glowing lava and burn? The idea is encouraging, but its implementation is dangerous, even impossible. There are many reasons.
We think of volcanoes as steep mountains, with a hole at the top in which lava boils. When we look for a suitable natural garbage incinerator, we are immediately faced with the fact that most volcanoes are not like that at all. Inside most of them, we find cooled lava and rocks, so burning wouldn't work in the first place.
Since it is not advisable to fly over an active volcano for safety reasons, we will have to transport the garbage on foot. In this case, it would be useful to avoid those flat volcanoes, whose lava tends to flow down the side, because it is difficult and also dangerous to approach them. We know of only eight active lava volcanoes worldwide, which means that we will immediately have to organize a more serious garbage hauling operation than we initially thought.
As for lava, there can be several types of it. The seeping basalt lava is hotter than a thousand degrees and also melts the stone. This is absolutely true, because man-made incinerators also operate at this temperature. However, if you were to target an unexpectedly active volcano, like Mount St. Helens in Washington state, you might find that the dacite lava there is only 780 degrees, so you won't do a perfect job. Not everything will melt at higher temperatures: for example, medical steel or nuclear heating elements.
This brings us to the crux of the problem: the essence of how volcanoes work is that the pressure in them increases until the material inside them eventually explodes. The problem is that any material that falls into the lava, whether it is garbage or a simple stone, triggers a reaction with spectacular explosions. Meanwhile, acidic volcanic gas erupts, destroying plants, animals and people alike. In other words, we don't throw garbage into the volcano because it will explode.
Therefore, those who want to solve the problem of garbage with volcanoes can only approach the volcano with serious protective equipment and great determination, through which they can immediately
You must escape as fast as you can.
Anyone who may throw away spent nuclear heating elements must take into account that a potential explosion will spread radioactive material over his head and into the surrounding area.
Burning garbage in a volcano is not only practically impractical, but also culturally contraindicated. In Hawaii, for example, volcanoes are considered the dwellings of local gods. The indigenous people here would likely consider it an insult if someone tried to hit one of the gods over the head with a bag of rubbish. Those who choose traditional waste management instead of volcanoes are actually saving themselves from great danger and inconvenience.
(Conversation, Popular Science)
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