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Compiled by Joseph Miller, Oregon PSR
Extensive, well-documented reasons and options exist for communities to conserve their resources, minimize their municipal and medical wastes, avoid or phase out incineration, and reduce and minimize landfills. By embracing such options communities will conserve resources, create jobs, reduce pollutants and global warming gases emitted into the environment, reduce health impairment and health care costs, and reduce direct and indirect financial threats to citizens, businesses, governments, etc.
The first two sections below allow readers to select either an introductory or extended set of print and video resources on the hows, whys, and benefits of minimizing municipal and medical wastes, and the dangers and disadvantages of incineration.
The third section below focuses specifically on resources addressing the Marion County Covanta municipal and medical waste incinerator in
Compiled by Joseph Miller, Oregon PSR
Incinerators: The Lethal Consequences of Breathing Fire - Pat Thomas - The Ecologist - 06/09/07
No Incentives for Incinerators
Policies that qualify incinerators—including mass-burn, gasification, pyrolysis, plasma, refuse derived fuel and other incinerator technologies—for renewable energy credits, tax credits, subsidies and other incentives present a renewed threat to environmental and economic justice in U.S. communities.Incinerators are a toxic technology. Even the most technologically advanced incinerators release hundreds of distinct hazardous byproducts including dioxins, heavy metals, and halogenated organic compounds in the form of toxic air emissions, particulates and ash.
Incinerators are a major contributor to global warming. Even by conservative calculations, typical incinerators emit more greenhouse gas emissions per kilowatt hour of electricity generated than gas-fired power plants. Incinerators also cause far more greenhouse gas emissions than recycling and other more sustainable waste solutions.
Low-income communities and communities of color are disproportionately burdened by incinerator contamination and the global warming consequences of greenhouse gas emissions.
Incinerators trap communities in a cycle of debt and displace more just, affordable and sustainable waste and energy solutions. Alternatives to incineration such as recycling, reuse and composting provide far more jobs and are much more economically sensible.
Incinerators waste energy, natural resources and the planet. Incinerator contracts require the disposal of the earth’s finite resources and encourage the extraction of raw materials to produce new products. When the life cycle of materials is considered, recycling saves far more energy than is generated by incineration and causes less greenhouse gas emissions and waste.
THEREFORE, we the undersigned, urge U.S. federal, state, and local agency officials to prioritize the highest and best re-use of discarded materials and to exclude municipal, medical, hazardous, and construction and demolition waste incineration from qualifying as a source of renewable energy, fuel and/or power in any and all papers, programs, incentives, regulations, legislation and policies.
[Waste management practices are an important, although oft-neglected, contributor to climate change. Waste disposal drives climate change directly through the release of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrous oxide (N2O) from incinerators and methane (CH4) from landfills.
Waste disposal also drives climate change indirectly by depriving the economy of reused, recycled and composted materials, thus requiring increased extraction of raw materials, an extremely energy-intensive process.
A climate-friendly alternative, known as Zero Waste, radically reduces greenhouse gas emissions by increasing the efficiency in managing materials.
This reduces the need for extraction, processing, and transport of raw materials, while also avoiding emissions from disposal (incineration, landfilling, open dumping and open burning). However, rather than investing in Zero Waste, the waste industry continues to promote disposal technologies. It is currently engaged in greenwashing these technologies to take advantage of subsidies available to "climate-friendly" technologies - thus accelerating climate change and simultaneously depriving truly climate-friendly technologies of needed financing.
GAIA recommends that:
* Governments should adopt Zero Waste as an essential strategy to combat climate change.
* Mitigation funds which are to be used in the waste sector should support Zero Waste projects.
* Incinerators, landfills, and other "waste-to-energy" projects which undermine Zero Waste should be ineligible for mitigation funds, offset credits and other forms of climate-related financing and subsidies.]
Zero Waste: Idealistic Dream or Realistic Goal? Video 58:00 4/08
“This 58 minute video on the cutting edge concept of Zero Waste features some of the leading theoreticians and practitioners in the business. They discuss the need to move from the back end of waste management to the front end of resource management as a key step in the move towards a sustainable society. Their analysis is illustrated with the job creating and business generating potential of this zero waste strategy.”
Energy from Waste: Part 1 - The Myths Debunked - Paul Connett Video 10:00 2007
Incineration and Nanoparticles - Paul Connett Video 2:43 2007
Compiled by Joseph Miller
Subsections:
1. Hows, Whys, and Benefits of Conserving Resources and Minimizing Municipal Wastes
2. Videos on Conserving Resources and Minimizing Municipal Wastes
3. Alternatives to Incinerating Medical Wastes
4. Comprehensive Websites Promoting Waste Minimization and Opposing Incineration
5. Articles and Videos Promoting Waste Minimization and Opposing Incineration
6. Threats to the Environment and Health Posed by Incinerators
8. Financial Threats Posed by Incinerators to Communities
1. Hows, Whys, and Benefits of Conserving Resources and Minimizing Municipal Wastes
Stop Trashing the Climate Report 6/5/08
“Stop Trashing the Climate provides compelling evidence that preventing waste and expanding reuse, recycling, and composting programs — that is, aiming for zero waste — is one of the fastest, cheapest, and most effective strategies available for combating climate change. This report documents the link between climate change and unsustainable patterns of consumption and wasting, dispels myths about the climate benefits of landfill gas recovery and waste incineration, outlines policies needed to effect change, and offers a roadmap for how to significantly reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions within a short period.
Significantly decreasing waste disposed in landfills and incinerators will reduce greenhouse gas emissions the equivalent to closing 21% of
Solid Waste & Recycling Magazine Blog: Ten Points on “Zero Waste” 7/22/08
GAIA : Jobs & Zero WasteGAIA : GAIA's Statement of Concern on Waste and Climate Change
ZeroWaste for ZeroWarming: GAIA’s Statement of Concern on Waste and Climate Change 12/08
Waste to Wealth - 2007 Program Activities Report - Institute for Local Self-Reliance
Environmental Economics of Discards, Jeffrey Morris, Sound Resource Management (PowerPoint presentation) 11/3/06
Sustainable Biomaterials Collaborative
Waste to Wealth - Program History (Institute for Local Self-Reliance)
Waste to Wealth - Recycling Record Setters (Institute for Local Self-Reliance)
Case Studies of Reuse Organizations: Urban Ore - David Hess 2005
COOL 2012: Compostable Organics Out of Landfills by 2012
“Zero waste: Recycling paper, plastic and aluminum is a start, but, oh, so 20th century. Eric Lombardi hates waste. "Landfills are like black holes, where resources go in and never come out," says the executive director of Eco-Cycle, a nonprofit recycler in
2. Videos on Conserving Resources and Minimizing Municipal Wastes
Zero Waste: Idealistic Dream or Realistic Goal? Video 58:00 4/08
“This 58 minute video on the cutting edge concept of Zero Waste features some of the leading theoreticians and practitioners in the business. They discuss the need to move from the back end of waste management to the front end of resource management as a key step in the move towards a sustainable society. Their analysis is illustrated with the job creating and business generating potential of this zero waste strategy.”
American Environmental Health Studies Project - On the Road to Zero Waste Videos
Zero Waste Video: The Zero Waste System and the Zero Waste Movement in the US 6:00
3. Alternatives to Incinerating Medical Wastes
Health Care Without Harm: Medical Waste - Alternatives to Incineration Webpage.
Health Care Without Harm Report: Non-Incineration Medical Waste Treatment Technologies 8/01
Health Care Without Harm: Medical Waste Minimization Resources Webpage
Last Major Medical Waste Incinerator In Michigan To Close 1/28/05
Ireland To Treat Medical Waste With Non-Burn Technology Nationwide 9/4/03
St. Louis Mayor Signs Bill To Stop Medical Waste Incineration 12/3/02
Last Medical Waste Incinerator In California Closes 12/10/01
California Medical Association Passes Resolution on Dioxin and Medical Waste Incineration 3/12/2000
Commitments to Reduce PVC, DEHP, Dioxins, and Medical Waste Incineration 4/96 - 2/03
PVC Resolution Berkeley Plastics Task Force
4. Comprehensive Websites Promoting Waste Minimization and Opposing Incineration
Sierra Club: Zero Waste - Don't Burn or Bury Garbage
Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives
[GAIA is a worldwide alliance of more than 500 grassroots groups, non-governmental organizations, and individuals in over 80 countries whose ultimate vision is a just, toxic-free world without incineration]
Incineration: The problem - Greenpeace International
Types of incineration - Greenpeace International
Incineration: Polluting, Ineffective and Expensive - NYPIRG
Incineration and Incinerators-in-Disguise - Energy Justice Network
Residents Environmental Action Committee for Health (REACH)
[Resources in many areas, including recycling rather than incinerating construction and demolition (C&D) debris]
Greenaction for Health & Environmental Justice
Incineration: Not Safe, Not Sensible - The Facts and Issues in Brief - Durham Environment Watch, Canada
UK Without Incineration Network
5. Articles and Videos Promoting Waste Minimization and Opposing Incineration
Municipal Waste Incineration - A poor solution for the twenty first century - Paul Connett 11/98
"Waste Not" Newsletter Archive - Issues 95 through 386 (3/90 - 4/97)
[The Waste Not newsletter was published by Ellen and Paul Connett almost weekly (468 issues) from April, 1988 to October, 2000. The newsletters provide a detailed collective history of the battles fought and the scientific, environmental, health, financial, etc. issues addressed by communities across the country trying to deal with the tactics of the incinerator industry and the inadequacies of regulators.]
Energy from Waste: Part 1 - The Myths Debunked - Paul Connett - Video 10:00 2007
"Incineration vs Zero Waste" PowerPoint Presentation - Paul Connett 2007
6. Threats to the Environment and Health Posed by Incinerators
Incinerators Trash Community Health - Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) 6/08
Irish Doctors Environmental Association: Incinerators and their Health Effects 6/15/06
Dioxin Update: Children are the Most Vulnerable
Dioxins Can Alter Normal Sex Ratios for Births - Jonathan Spicer - Reuters 10/20/07
The Burning Question: Chlorine & Dioxin - Pat Costner, April 1997
Over 100 environmental health, environmental justice, health-affected, and labor groups call on President Obama to release the EPA’s report on dioxins ... groups decry President Bush’s last minute gift to chemical industry of another review of the EPA’s assessment ... already underway for over 18 years 1/16/09
Stop Tire Incineration - Dangers of Tire-Derived Fuel - Energy Justice Network
"Dioxins and Incineration" PowerPoint Presentation - Paul Connett 2007
The Revolution, Part 3: Ultrafines - Peter Montague - Rachel's Democracy & Health News #774 7/23/03
Nanoparticles - No Incinerators, Dublin, Ireland 2007
Incineration and Nanoparticles - Paul Connett Video 2:43 2007
The Great Incinerator Ash Scam. Waste Not, Issues 315 - 318, Parts 1 - 4 3/95
Supreme Court Roundup: Justices Decide Incinerator Ash Is Toxic Waste - New York Times 5/3/94
Incinerator Ash Is Hazardous Waste - Illinois Municipal Review - 9/94
St. Dennis Anti Incinerator Group: Ash 2003
“Both ash and slag are defined as hazardous wastes under international law…”
Greenpeace International: Incinerator Ash is Hazardous Waste
Jacksonville Will Clean Incinerator Ash From Superfund Sites 3/11/08Friends of the Earth (UK) Report: The Safety of Incinerator Ash 11/02
Friends of the Earth: Toxic Incinerator Ash Used in London's Roads 1/5/01
Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper: Major Victory Against Incinerator Ash 10/12/07
Associated Press: Incinerator Ash to End 16-year Worldwide Trek 6/19/02
8. Financial Threats Posed by Incinerators to Communities
International Alliance Condemns Waste Incineration, Favors Non-Burn Options 4/21/04
“An international coalition of 111 organizations in 39 countries issued a new report today condemning waste incineration, “Resources up in Flames: The Economic Pitfalls of Incineration versus a Zero Waste Approach in the Global South" details how waste incinerators could spell financial disaster for host communities. The international coalition, coordinated by GAIA (Global Anti-Incinerator Alliance/Global
According to the GAIA report, prepared by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), waste incinerators generate pollution, harm public health, and place huge financial burdens on host communities. Pitfalls such as high capital costs, tonnage shortfalls, expensive pollution control equipment, and hampering least-cost options such as recycling can beset an incinerator project in
At least 16 jurisdictions worldwide have banned or restricted municipal solid waste incineration. Chicago, California's Alameda County, and
Brenda Platt, co-director of ILSR and the report's author, asks "Why invest millions of dollars in a technology that after 30 years leaves you with a pile of potentially toxic ash, when that same money could be redirected to readily available cheaper and safer options which create many more jobs and new businesses for local communities?"”
[Article focuses on closing the
Dump the incinerator: Detroit should pursue smarter, cleaner alternatives for trash disposal - Detroit Free Press Editorial 4/20/08
Are changes indicative of Detroit incinerator future? - The Michigan Citizen 11/7/08
US: Waste Incinerators Making a Comeback - Rachel's Democracy & Health News 7/13/06
A Burning Issue - fedgazette - The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis 3/05
Incinerators Are Making a Comeback (or Trying) - Rachel's Democracy &
Money To Burn - Rachel's Democracy & Health News 12/7/06
Harrisburg's incinerator a drag on city finances 10/13/08
Independent Audit of the Harrisburg Incinerator finds it in $13.5 million debt by 2000 5/25/00
9. Precautionary Concerns about the Potential Adverse Effects of Incinerating Engineered Nanoscale Materials in the Waste Stream
Extensive research indicates that when municipal and/or medical waste is burned in an incinerator, vast quantities of small particles -- particulates -- are released into the air. These particulates are classified by size, and measured in micrometers. A micrometer is 1 millionth of a meter, and also referred to as a micron.
Particulates are classified as Coarse, Fine, and Ultrafine. Peter Montague in his seminal 2007 article entitled "The Deadliest Air Pollution Isn't Being Regulated or Even Measured" describes them as follows:
"Coarse particles are those that measure between 10 micrometers in diameter down to 2.5 micrometers... A human hair typically measures about 100 micrometers in diameter, so the largest particles are about 1/10th the thickness of a human hair. These coarse particles are usually referred to as PM 10 (particulate matter 10)...
[Fine particles] measure between 2.5 micrometers and 0.1 micrometers, [and] are typically referred to as PM 2.5. The smallest of these particles are small enough to get into the lower portions of your lungs. There they may be removed by several clearance mechanisms, but very slowly. Their "half-life" in the human lung is five years, meaning that a certain dose today will have diminished by half five years from now. At that rate, a dose today will stay with you for 50 years...
Ultrafine [particles] vary in size from 0.1 micrometers down to 0.001 micrometers (or 100 nanometers down to 1 nanometer in diameter; a nanometer is a billionth of a meter). The largest of these particles [i.e., PM 0.1] has a diameter 1/1000th of the width of a human hair, and the smallest has a diameter 1/100,000th of a human hair. Relatively few such particles occur in nature, so our bodies have evolved no efficient means for protecting us against them..."
Research indicates that incinerators create and release many more Fine and Ultrafine particulates than Coarse particulates. As indicated in subsection six, the evidence on the damaging health effects of particulates is clear. As levels of PM 10 and smaller particulates in the air increase, respiratory (e.g., asthma, bronchitis, emphysema) and other illnesses increase, as does premature death from heart disease and lung cancer. Research indicates that Fine and Ultrafine particulates impair health and cause premature death even more than Coarse particles.
As described above, Fine and Ultrafine particulates travel to the deepest parts of our lungs, and are very difficult for our lungs to remove. Such particles are also particularly threatening because toxic metals and toxic and carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) cling to them, further exacerbating their health impairing effects (see subsection six).
Ultrafine, nanometer sized particulates emitted by incinerators are likely to pose even greater environmental and health threats in the future, because the municipal, medical, industrial and other wastes burned in these incinerators contains more and more engineered nano materials that have an average diameter of 100 nanometers (0.1 micrometers or 100 billionths of a meter) in size. Such engineered nanoscale materials (technically ultrafine or PM 0.1 particles) have unique properties.
The "Sweating the Small Stuff" article below, for instance, notes that "nanoscale materials are very different than their larger counterparts, with distinct electronic, magnetic, chemical and mechanical properties," and that "nanoparticles have the potential to bypass the blood-brain barrier" ... "the potential to pass the placental barrier" ... [and that] "once in the bloodstream, nanomaterials can circulate throughout the body and be taken up by organs and tissues."
"Sweating... " also notes that "the European Commission Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks reported [3/10/06] that 'experts are of the unanimous opinion that the adverse effects of nanoparticles cannot be predicted (or derived) from the known toxicity of material of macroscopic size, which obeys the laws of classical physics.' "
Because of their nano size and unique properties, and because they are unregulated, many prestigious groups have called for urgent precautionary research, regulation and oversight of engineered nanomaterials throughout their cycle of production, use, and disposal. These groups include the Environmental Working Group, the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (UK), the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies, the ETC Group, Friends of the Earth Europe, Food & Water Watch, the Soil Association (UK), the Science & Environmental Health Network, and many others. The following articles present the compelling positions of these groups.
The Revolution, Part 3: Ultrafines - Peter Montague - Rachel's Democracy & Health News #774 7/23/03
Sweating the Small Stuff: Nanotechnology Needs Research and Regulation - Food & Water Watch 1/07Precautionary Principle - Science & Environmental Health Network
Nanotech Press Releases and Nano in the News [continually updated] - Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN) - Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Pew Charitable Trusts Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies: Where Does the Nano Go? New Report on End-of-Life Regulation of Nanotechnologies 7/26/07Nanotechnology and the Current Legislation Position Paper - Friends of the Earth Europe 11/07
[see especially the section on Waste Management Directives and engineered nanoparticles]
NanoAction: Principles for the Oversight of Nanotechnologies and Nanomaterials 1/08
ETC Blog: Too small to be beautiful? Organic Pioneer says No to Nano 1/16/08
Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition Calls for Nanotechnology Regulation / Nanotech Report 4/2/08
Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition: Emerging Technologies - Nanotech: The Next High-Tech Revolution?
Government Fails to Assess Potential Dangers of Nanotechnology - Scientific American 12/18/08
Do Nanoparticles in Food Pose a Health Risk? - Scientific American 3/13/08
Collaborative on Health and the Environment: The Impacts of Nanotechnology 10/11/07
Environmental Working Group: Comments to FDA on Nano-Scale Ingredients in Cosmetics 10/9/06
Michigan State research sheds new light on health dangers of nanoparticles 2/17/06
Nel et al.: Toxic Potential of Materials at the Nanolevel 2/3/06
What can be inferred from bacteriumnanoparticle interactions about the potential consequences of environmental exposure to nanoparticles? Ecotoxicology, Volume 17, Number 5 / July, 2008
Nanoecotoxicology: Environmental risks of nanomaterials (Abstract) - Martin Scheringer - Nature Nanotechnology 3, 322 - 323 (2008)
Nanoecotoxicology: Nanoparticles at large (Abstract) - Renata Behra & Harald Krug - Nature Nanotechnology 3, 253 - 254 (2008)
Resources Addressing the
Compiled by Joseph Miller, Oregon PSR
Oregon PSR's position on the Marion County Covanta Municipal and Medical Waste Incinerator (Brooks, OR) and the North Marion County Disposal Facility Ash Monofill (Woodburn, OR) is informed by and reflected in the following resolutions, resources, presentations and testimony:
1. PSR's March, 1996 resolution on dioxin and medical waste incineration.
2. PSR and Oregon PSR's endorsement of a 2007 statement signed by hundreds of national, state/regional, and local organizations opposing renewable energy credits, tax credits, subsidies and other incentives for incinerators burning municipal, medical and other wastes.
3. The introductory and extended sets of "Resources Promoting Waste Minimization and Opposing Incineration" compiled by Oregon PSR Board member Joseph Miller.
4. Presentations, testimony, and letters written by PSR Board members and members:
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