Waste incinerators (including waste pyrolysis and gasification systems) are net energy losers when the embodied energy of the materials burned is accounted for;

Recycling materials saves three to five times the amount of energy as incinerating these same materials would generate;

For every ton of material destroyed by waste incineration, many more tons of raw materials must be mined, extracted, processed, or distributed to manufacture new products to take its place;

Waste incineration encourages a one-way flow of materials on a finite planet, thus making the task of conserving resources and reducing waste more difficult, not easier;

If the U.S. incinerated all of its municipal solid waste, it would contribute less than 5% of the country’s energy needs;

Waste incineration represents the most polluting solid waste management technology;

Waste incineration systems (including waste pyrolysis and gasification systems) produce dioxins, furans, and other persistent pollutants, and the detrimental health impacts of pollutants released by waste incinerators have been well documented;

Incineration is expensive and does not eliminate or adequately control the toxic emissions from today’s chemically complex municipal discards;

Even new incinerators release toxic metals, dioxins, and acid gases;

Far from eliminating the need for a landfill, waste incinerator systems produce toxic ash and other residues;

One alarming new trend is the increase in projects to use incinerator ash and disperse it throughout the environment;

Maximizing energy recovery is technologically incompatible with reducing dioxin emissions;

Waste incinerator systems rely on minimum guaranteed waste flows, thus directly promoting continued waste generation while hindering waste prevention, reuse, composting, recycling, and recycling-based community economic development; and

Waste incineration costs cities and counties more and provides fewer jobs than comprehensive recycling and composting, and prohibits the development of local recycling-based businesses.

THEREFORE WE URGE U.S. FEDERAL, STATE, AND LOCAL AGENCY OFFICIALS TO:

• Exclude "waste," "waste resources," "waste incineration," "pyrolysis," and "gasification" from qualifying as renewable or sources of renewable energy, fuel, or power in renewable portfolio standards, renewable energy solicitations, renewable energy grant/loan programs, green or clean power programs, biomass energy programs, and other related programs, regulations, legislation, and policies; and
  
  
• Exclude "municipal solid waste" from the definition of "biomass" in renewable energy standards, procurement policies, and other related programs, regulations, legislation, and policies.

Sincerely,

Brenda Platt
Co-Director
Institute for Local Self-Reliance
927 15th Street, NW, 4th Floor
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 898-1610 ext. 230
bplatt@ilsr.org

Monica Wilson
GAIA
1442A Walnut St., #20
Berkeley, CA 94709
(510) 883-9490 ext. 2#
mwilson@no-burn.org

*NOTE: For this sign-on document, waste incineration refers not just to mass-burn and refuse-derived-fuel systems, but to any type of thermal treatment system for discarded materials that wastes resources and emits pollutants. These include technologies based upon combustion, pyrolysis, and thermal gasification. Like combustion, pyrolysis and gasification systems produce dioxins, furans, and other persistent pollutants.

Gasification and pyrolysis of municipal solid waste are classified as “incineration” by the European Union. This document does not refer to landfill gas or to biological treatments.