ATR systems offer flue gas cleanup and emissions performance that meet or exceed the strictest clean air laws in the United States and the European Union. Emissions from an ATR plant contain fewer metals, dioxins and conventional pollutants than other EfW approaches.
ATR systems increase a facility’s "diversion rate" – the percentage of materials coming into plants that are destroyed or converted to energy and useful byproducts. Most EfW plants in the US, after incineration and recovery of some metals, combine both bottom ash and fly ash (20-25% of MSW input by weight) and send it to a landfill. ATR systems, by contrast, landfill less than 2 percent of a plant’s MSW input; all remaining MSW is converted into either energy or usable products.