Waste management companies, such as Covanta, misleadingly refer to trash incinerators as “waste to energy” or “resource recovery” facilities. In reality, burning trash is the most polluting way to manage waste or to make energy. Recycling and composting the same discarded materials would save 3-5 times as much energy as incineration can recover and result in less pollution. Incinerators are a major health hazard for the 4.4 million Americans who live near them. Residents are exposed to 28 times as much dioxins, 3 times as much nitrogen oxides, and 6–14 times as much mercury than those who live elsewhere. Trash incineration emits 2.5 times as much CO2 and nearly 6 times as much lead to produce the same amount of electricity as a coal power plant.
Incineration is more than simply landfilling trash. For every 100 tons burned, 70 tons are injected into the air as air pollution and the other 30 tons become toxic ash that is buried in landfills, making the landfills smaller, but more toxic. It’s not the size of landfills that are harmful, but their toxicity.
There is no shortage of landfill space in our region. Rather than use incineration to reduce waste going to landfills, a Zero Waste system can make landfills smaller and less dangerous by redesigning products, reducing waste and packaging, reusing materials, recycling, composting, and processing waste properly before landfilling the small amount remaining.
Read more about incineration, how it’s harmful to people’s health and how it contributes to environmental racism.