Why Are We Against Incineration?
There Are Better Alternatives
Supporters of the waste-to-energy incinerator argue that we cannot keep doing what we have been doing with respect to our garbage. We completely agree! Right now, Frederick county ships several hundred tons of its waste out of state, costing us millions. That’s why we support any and all waste disposal alternatives that either reduce or eliminate the need for a landfill and do not include incineration. (Incineration requires the need for a landfill.)
Let’s take the incinerator off the table, and put our focus into smarter ways to handle our waste. New lifecycle products and zero-waste alternatives aren’t just the pipe dreams of environmentalists anymore. Other communities have had great success in building zero-waste facilities. We need a 21st-century solution. Technology constantly changes, as do operational and environmental standards. How much more will it cost us to keep up with these standards?
Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives website offers numerous solutions to waste, but the Frederick County BOCC is ignoring them.
See http://www.gazette.net/zerowaste/ for more information on the trip to Boulder, Colorado, June 2008, made by several Frederick County officials, including Kai Hagen. Read this inspiring story about Atlanta becoming the first zero-waste zone.
If Frederick County, Maryland, Does Not Proceed With an Incinerator, What Is the Alternative?
An alternative plan to a trash incinerator for Frederick County is to reach a 70+% diversion rate within the next 5 to 7 years. (Frederick’s current recycling rate is approximately 44%.) In addition to this goal, we propose immediate steps be taken to divert construction and demolition waste, all electronic waste and any and all items which can be reused rather than dumped. These goals may be reached through working within the current County programs and/or by private industry’s participation.
Frederick County’s waste stream is approximately 40% paper, and another 30% is compostables. These two parts of our waste can be recovered. The Frederick County School system has minimal recycling, and business recycling is not widely available. There should be exploration of how to incorporate these two sectors into the diversion and recycling plan and goals.
To further the goal of adding composting to the waste collection process, the infrastructure for composting facilities need to be identified and built. With Frederick County’s high commitment to maintaining its rural characteristics and long agricultural history, this is desirable as well as achievable within 5 years.
The full benefits of the recent conversion to single-stream recycling in Frederick County have yet to be fully quantified. Preliminary figures indicate that it is doing great! Yard waste mulching and composting has already diverted 20,000 tons per year from our landfill. When food composting is added (known as a 3-cart system), within approximately a year, a community typically sees an increase in their recycling rate by 10 to 15%.
Looking at the hierarchy of resource recovery as recommended by the EPA, landfilling and incineration are the lowest ranked choices in resource management. The Frederick County Solid Waste Management Plan, 1998–2017 also excludes incineration as a means of waste disposal. Therefore, we believe a 5-year moratorium on any further procurement of an incinerator is justified and proper, in order to plan, implement and maximize the above identified goals.
We can look at example communities such as Fresno and San Francisco, CA, and Toronto, Canada for sample policies and programs which are successful in such communities in order to identify specific steps Frederick County should take. We anticipate the need of a Zero Waste consultant of the caliber of the guest speakers who spoke at the Waste Not! Expo in Frederick on March 28, 2009 in order to help design and plan specific steps to reach the maximum waste diversion and resource recovery.
Incinerators typically produce ash that is 10% of the volume and 30% of the weight of the incoming waste. Similar results can be achieved by techniques outlined above. Why spend hundreds of millions of dollars to achieve the same result?
With an incinerator there is nonprocessable waste and residual ash which must be landfilled. By focusing on maximum diversion and reaching the goals above, Frederick County would achieve the equivalent waste (or even less) to landfill. This would cost a fraction of Frederick’s portion of the $526,000,00.00–$600,000,000.00 price tag of the approved incinerator.
To better understand "zero waste" please see: What Is Zero Waste?
Reduce
The best way to reduce is to start buying and using less. Consumers can make educated purchases about products with wasteful packaging. A refusal to buy a wasteful product or one that has too much or non-recyclable packaging can be communicated to a retailer or manufacturer. They listen. Just a few months ago, in March of 2009, Pepsi announced that it was redesigning its Aquafina water bottles to use less plastic. One of their main motivations is customer pressure. This is from an article in Manufacturing.Net in March 2009:
“Consumers have cut back on bottled water purchases, in part because of environmental concerns about the waste created by disposable bottles...” and, “Bottled water sales have been hurt as consumers grew more concerned about waste created by the product.”
Pepsi hopes to save 75,000,000 pounds of plastic a year.
A letter printed in the May 9, 2009 Wall Street Journal (from a lady in Chevy Chase). She was objecting to receiving some wine shipped in styrofoam: “...I complained to the merchant, who said ‘no one’ in the industry used anything but Styrofoam to ship bottles. I already felt guilty about generating so much non biodegradable material anyway, so now I have been dealing with a California merchant that uses only cardboard and newspaper to protect the bottles, which works just fine. Please encourage wine distributors everywhere to use planet-friendly packing materials.”
Remember, that’s in the Wall Street Journal wine column which is read by wine merchants around the country who see sales lost because they use Styrofoam. Consumers can have clout.
Waste can also be reduced by encouraging or requiring Extended Producer Responsibility. This is from Wikipedia:
“Also known as 'Product Stewardship', Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) uses political means to hold producers liable for the costs of managing their products at end of life. This tactic attempts to make the transition from traditional end-of-pipe waste ‘diversion’ programs (funded by local government and therefore the public, and of no responsibility to the producer) to ‘cradle to cradle’ recycling systems designed, financed, and managed by the producers themselves. EPR promotes that producers (usually brand owners) have the greatest control over product design and marketing and therefore have the greatest ability and responsibility to reduce toxicity and waste." (Sierra Club, 2009)
This can take the form of a reuse, buy-back, or recycling program, or in energy production. The producer may also choose to delegate this responsibility to a third party, a so-called producer responsibility organization (PRO), which is paid by the producer for spent-product management. In this way, EPR shifts responsibility for waste from government to private industry, obliging producers, importers and/or sellers to internalise waste management costs in their product prices and ensuring the sustainable and safe handling of the remains of their products (Hanisch, 2000). See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_producer_responsibility
Reuse
Reuse is a little different from recycle. Recycling entails taking items and either converting them into something else, or re-creating them into the same product. Reuse is when we take things, especially ‘disposable’ items and use them over again, repair them rather than dispose of them when they break, or pass them on to others when we no longer have a use for the item. Here is a good description and some useful tips on reuse, many of them from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences website.
Many of these things may not cost much to replace, but it doesn’t make any more sense to throw away those things than it does to throw away your bicycle after one use. And speaking of bicycles (or other durable goods like washers, dryers, etc.) -- why not repair them rather than replace them when they break? This is another form of “reuse”. New is not always better, nor it is always necessary. You’ll be helping your environment, but your pocketbook will thank you too! When you do decide to replace something large and “reusable”, be sure to donate the old one to charitable outlets like the ones mentioned here. Most of the time the item can be repaired by those groups, and then redistributed into other homes rather than landfills. Hold a yard sale or give-away. And ask your neighbors to join in too — this shares the work and increases the number of unused things that can find new homes and new uses. And your local recycling/solid waste office may run a “swap shop” at a recycling centers. When you do need to purchase something, check those yard sales and charitable outlets first to see if they have what you need before selecting something new.
Remember, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure! The important thing to remember when you intend to throw anything out is to STOP and think: can I find a way to continue to use this item? can this item be used by someone else?
In addition, just walk down East Patrick Street in downtown Frederick City and you will see several local businesses that specialize in the reuse of clothing and home furnishings. From antique shops like Cannon Hill Place and Emporium Antiques to Chic to Chic too for vintage clothing or Fabulous Finds for home furnishings, there are many places you can find a new home for that gently used article of clothing or piece of furniture.
The people of the world are aggressively working to reduce the amount of waste and divert what waste is generated from the trash cycle. Programs like StEP are designed to divert electronic waste (e-waste) from the waste stream. There are many programs and initiatives focused on addressing our global out-of-control waste problem; people working all over the world on a variety of ideas and solutions. Frederick County’s desire to rely on the 19th century idea of burying or burning trash is completely out of step with what the rest of the country and the world is currently doing.
Recycle and Compost
Frederick County has a great recycling program!
“Did you know that recycling one aluminum can saves the same amount of energy needed to power a television for three hours? Did you know that Americans use 2,500,000 plastic bottles every hour? Most importantly did you know that YOU could make a difference for our community, country and world, just by recycling? Recycling is one part of Frederick County Government’s strategy to reduce waste and manage resources wisely. All residents are encouraged to recycle more and waste less.” (From Frederick County’s recycling website. Use the topics on the left column for much more information about our County’s recycling program.)
An important part of recycling is composting. Nearly 1/3 of the waste we generate is organic matter that can be composted and returned to the soil. Frederick County already diverts 20,000 tons per year of yard waste from our landfill. That material is either chipped for mulch or composted to make a soil amendment that can replace fertilizers made from petroleum. see this link to learn more about our compost.
When we add food waste from grocery stores, restaurants, schools, etc. to our composting program, another 13% of our waste will be diverted from landfilling. A surprising amount of paper (up to 50%) mixed with food waste can also be composted.
Here's more about the types of materials that can be composted on a large scale. Also see PDF pg 6.
See how Dubuque, Iowa's food scrap recycling program has extended their landfill life, reduced pollution (especially methane — a powerful greenhouse gas), maintained Dubuque County’s recycling rate above 25%, and created a beneficial compost product for gardens and landscaping.
Sources/further reading:
See other ways to reduce waste at home and work.
