Campaign Statement Celebrates Detroit Incinerator Closure as Step Toward Environmental Justice
Protections for workers, residents and move toward zero waste still crucial
For Immediate Release
News from Breathe Free Detroit
Wednesday, March 27, 2019
Contact: Kim Hunter kim@engagemichigan.org | 313-287-2992
DETROIT – With the advent of the sudden scheduled closing, the Breathe Free Detroit Campaign has issued the following statement. move away from incinerators and landfills and implement instead real zero waste policies as a main strategy to mitigate climate change.”
Those of us in the Breathe Free Detroit Campaign have been working for Detroiters’ right to breathe clean air, for just transition for workers and residents once the incinerator closed, and movement toward zero waste. We celebrate the closure of one of the world’s largest incinerators, a facility that has been a bad neighbor for over 30 years, unable to comply with Clean Air laws and odor restrictions. We will continue to pursue environmental justice with our goals of protections for the workers and residents and working toward serious reducing, reusing, and recycling to produce zero waste.
Incinerator operators made substantial profits from the labor of the workers and we are glad to hear that Mayor Mike Duggan supports the corporation’s efforts to find comparable wages and benefits for the laid off workers. We also hope those new jobs don’t harm human health. Also residents deserve protections not to be priced out or pushed out of one of Detroit’s most rapidly gentrifying neighborhood. We still produce too must waste and city leaders need to take the lead in waste reduction. This is an opportunity for Detroit’s elected leaders to help reduce global warming, and move toward environmental justice and a healthier future.
Of course the Breathe Free Detroit Campaign welcomes the closure of a polluting facility and we look forward to a new chapter in Detroit’s movement forward dealing with the challenges that remain for workers, residents and for all Detroiters.
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