A laboratory-scale study was performed to compare the emissions of pollutants from the batch combustion of polystyrene (PS), polyethylene (PE), and poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) and to examine the conditions that minimize them. Fixed beds of polymer particles were burned in a two-stage, preheated muffle furnace, using air at atmospheric pressure. The temperature of the primary furnace was varied over a range of 500-1000 degreesC, to identify its influence on the emission of pollutants. The combustion effluent was mixed with additional preheated air, channeled to a secondary muffle furnace (afterburner), which was operated at 1000 degreesC. Emissions of CO, CO2, light hydrocarbons, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and particulates were monitored either on-line or by sample collection, followed by gas chromatographic analysis. Emission magnitudes and trends were found to be dependent on the type of the polymer burned. The combustion of PS produced the largest yields of PAHs and, especially, soot; PE produced the next-largest yields, followed by those from PVC. Emissions of CO were the highest from PE. As the temperature of the primary furnace increased, (a) particulate emissions from burning PS and PVC generally increased, while the trend of PE was ambivalent; (b) PAH emissions from PS and PE increased, whereas those from PVC rather decreased; and (c) the trends of CO with temperature were not monotonic. Additional treatment of the combustion effluent in the afterburner led to a decrease of particulate and PAH emissions from PS and PVC, whereas those from PE decreased at low primary furnace temperatures but increased at high temperatures. CO emissions from PVC decreased in the afterburner, but those from PS and PE generally increased. The trends of emissions monitored at the exit of the afterburner paralleled those at the exit of the primary furnace, as the temperature of the primary furnace was varied. Given the aforementioned trends, it appears that operation of the primary furnace at a relatively low temperature, in the vicinity of 600 degreesC, allows the afterburner to operate under conditions suitable for minimizing most emissions for all three polymers. A detailed kinetic model, comprised of more than 1100 chemical reactions, was used for the description of the afterburner. For this purpose, the afterburner was approximated as a steady-state plug-flow reactor. Measured concentrations of O-2, CO, CO2, light hydrocarbons, and PAHs at the inlet of the afterburner were integrated over the duration of the combustion event and used as input to the model calculation. Oxidation of PAHs, their conversion to soot, and the oxidation of soot were added to a previously developed model that included PAH formation. The model was tested for the case of PE incineration, and its predictions were qualitatively consistent with experimental data.