The world's first experiment to capture carbon dioxide from the fumes of burning trash is taking place at Oslo, Norway's main waste incinerator. According to a Reuters article, technology aims to enlist the world's trash in slowing global warming.

Klemetsrud incinerator burns household and industrial waste and generates heat to warm buildings in the city.

About 60 percent of the trach incinerated at Klemetsrud is of biological origin, meaning capturing emissions would be a step to extract carbon from a natural cycle in so-called "negative emissions," the article says.

Oslo’s mayor, Marianne Borgen quoted in the article as saying at an opening ceremony for the project, "I hope Oslo can show other cities that it's possible" to capture emissions from trash.

The Klemetsrud incinerator emits more than 300,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, the article notes. The article describes the test plant as consisting of five containers feeding exhaust gases through a series of pipes and filters which will capture carbon dioxide at a rate equivalent to 2,000 metric tons per year. The test will be conducted until the end of April 2016.

If successful, Reuters reports, a full-scale carbon capture plant could be built by 2020. A use for the captured CO2 could be to inject it into oil and gas fields to increase pressure and improve production rates.