US Legislation Alert: American Chemistry Council’s Effort to Push “Plastic-to-fuel” Bills
In 2017-2020, the plastics and chemical industry, represented by the American Chemistry Council (ACC), led an effort to make legislative changes to statewide policies to promote pyrolysis or "plastic-to-fuel" (PTF). This strategy not only promotes a techno-fix with a...
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Fact Sheet: Pollution and Health Impacts of Waste-to-Energy Incineration
Epidemiological studies provide sufficient evidence of direct health impacts of incinerators, which range from neoplasia to congenital anomalies, infant deaths and miscarriage. While more research can be done on newer incinerators when enough data is...
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Fact Sheet: Plastic and Incineration
We have too much plastic that has nowhere to go... Can we just burn it? Short answer: no! Burning is the most harmful way to handle plastic waste. It turns one form of pollution into others, including air emissions, toxic ash, and...
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Fact Sheet: Chemical Recycling
Questions and Answers: Chemical Recycling Industry is now pushing for a new technological fix for plastic waste, called "chemical recycling." New proposals are popping up in Australia, the EU, Indonesia, Malaysia,Thailand, and the U.S., increasingly supported by...
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U.S. Municipal Solid Waste Incinerators: An Industry in Decline
A new report by the Tishman Environment and Design Center at the New School is the first to uncover that among the 73 incinerators that remain in the U.S., approximately 8 out of 10 are located in environmental justice communities, populations that are...
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Waste-to-Energy has no place in Africa
For centuries, self-sufficient agricultural societies had been zero waste by nature. This sustainable cycle broke when artificial materials, such as plastic packaging, began conquering the market. As the world's fastest-urbanizing continent, Africa has...
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Incinerators in trouble
's As part of a series of projects planned to support and elevate grassroots efforts against trash incinerators in the U.S., GAIA released a factsheet on failing incinerators, featuring five key locations. Commerce Refuse-to-Waste Facility (CREF) in Commerce,...
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Garbage Incineration: What a Waste
Burning waste comes with a number of economic, environmental, and social justice issues. Read about them all in this two page factsheet.
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Facts about “Waste-to-Energy” Incinerators
Incinerators are facilities that treat waste by burning it. They come under many names such as “mass burn incinerators,” “thermal treatment facilities,” or so-called “waste-to-energy” (WTE) plants, and involve processes such as combustion, pyrolysis, gasification, or...
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MÉXICO: DECLARACIÓN DEL TERCER ENCUENTRO INTERNACIONAL CONTRA LA INCINERACIÓN DE RESIDUOS Y POR BASURA CERO
Jornada de actividades en México incluyó el Tercer Encuentro contra la Incineración y un “toxitour” junto con la comunidad de Apaxco, Estado de México, y comunidades aledañas. Asimismo, se organizó un concurrido Foro en contra de la propuesta de incinerador de la empresa Veolia para México. Esta declaración resume las líneas de acción en ejecución y por realizar.
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Mythbusting video on “waste-to-energy”
Have you ever heard someone say that “waste-to-energy” can solve our garbage and energy problems? This video reveals the dirty truth.
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Green businesses and cities at risk: How your waste management plan may be leading you in the wrong direction
Business and cities should be aware that burning waste in any form and by any name is a false path to zero waste, and undermines true sustainability goals.
read moreIncinerators and “waste to energy”: Myths vs. Facts
Learn the true story behind the lies that the so-called “waste to energy” industry tells.
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Community action defeats waste burning in cement kilns
BREAKING: Small community stands up to world’s largest cement company, wins Goldman Environmental Prize
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Swept under the carpet: exposing the greenwash of the U.S. carpet industry
Recycling down, toxic incineration up? The carpet industry is hiding a dirty secret, and it’s time for them to change.
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Waste Gasification & Pyrolysis: High Risk, Low Yield Processes for Waste Management
Over $2 billion was invested in the projects listed in this report alone, all of which closed or were canceled before commencing operations.
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Analysis of Plastic Pollution Investment Strategies, February 2017
As a network of leading zero waste implementers and advocates for pollution prevention, we believe that effective strategies to combat plastic pollution must be about more than waste management.
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No Renewable Energy Incentives for Burning Plastic
Climate change gives us no time to waste on polluting schemes posing as renewable energy. If we are to avert disaster, we must ensure that all climate funding goes to real solutions.
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Why the NGT Okhla Order Sets a Bad Precedent for Indian Environmental Jurisprudence
Delhi needs to embrace the virtues of a people-centric and inclusive approach that engages communities instead of alienating them.
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Gasification, Pyrolysis, Plasma Arc: False Solutions to Plastic Pollution
Our network’s experiences in countries around the world have shown that incineration, gasification, pyrolysis, and plasma arc are at best a distraction from real solutions, and at worst a source of serious climate and toxic pollution. As part of the Break Free From Plastics movement, we know that this isn’t just about managing the problem. It’s about preventing it in the first place.
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Widespread opposition to WTE/incinerator subsidies in California
90 organizations and leaders signed a letter on June 27, 2016 to Governor Brown of California, opposing the idea of increased subsidies and incentives for WTE/incineration in the state.
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Article: Peeling away the layers from Waste-to-Energy
This article by Rod Muir appeared in the December 2015/January 2016 issue of Solid Waste & Recycling Magazine (Canada).
read more5 reasons why Europe’s garbage burning is a big problem
European incinerators are often misleadingly touted in other regions of the world as a global model. Articles frequently discuss the architectural appearance of incinerators in Vienna and Copenhagen, but miss the boat about the direction of EU policies overall, and...
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What you need to know about waste incineration and the Clean Power Plan
The final version of the Clean Power Plan (released August 2015) holds good and bad news for communities organizing to close incinerators and prevent the construction of new incinerators, including clarifications that burning plastics wouldn’t count as carbon neutral, and acknowledges that burning trash competes with waste prevention, reuse, recycling, and composting.
read moreToxic Air and Ash Emissions from U.S. Covanta and Wheelabrator incinerators: dioxin, mercury, and other toxic contaminants
Covanta reached a settlement with the Connecticut Attorney General to pay $400,000 for dioxin emission violations at an incinerator. The problems were serious enough to have forced a temporary closure of the incinerator. This BBC article includes an interview with the attorney general’s office about the case.
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Incinerators Blocked / Closed, U.S. & Canada, 2012-2017
List of incinerators that are about to close, incinerator proposals that have been blocked, and new incinerators.
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Questions to Ask When Evaluating a “Waste-to-Energy” Incinerator Project or Proposal
Communities facing the prospect of having “waste-to-energy” incinerators established in their neighbourhoods have a right to know the full details of the project and its impact on their health and environment. Host communities carry the direct burdens of these...
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Open Letter and Technical Critique to Ocean Conservancy regarding “Stemming the Tide” report
We are dismayed that a report aiming to reduce plastics pollution in oceans seems to have missed fundamental facts to support this goal. To suggest waste-to-energy incineration as a medium-term solution to plastic pollution ignores why we need to wean off fossil fuel products such as petroleum and plastics.
read moreEJ Groups Raise Concern Over ESPS Memo Allowing Waste-Derived Fuel
Environmental justice (EJ) groups are warning that EPA’s existing source performance standards (ESPS) may encourage fossil fuel-fired power plants to burn waste-derived fuel that could be worse for the climate than coal while also exposing nearby communities to mercury and other toxics released when the waste is burned.
read moreThe Clean Power Plan threatens communities with incinerator subsidies
The U.S.’s president has vowed to prevent the Clean Power Plan from being implemented. Despite these developments, GAIA will carry on in its Clean Power Plan work to ensure waste incineration is not incentivized as a form of renewable energy.
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Burning Plastic? Industrial Waste? EPA Guts The Clean Air Act
New EPA loophole threatens community health, the climate, and local economies by allowing waste burning along with coal
read moreConcrete Troubles: A GAIA and CEM report about emissions from cement plants in India
In 2010, the Indian Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) released the “Guidelines on Co-processing in Cement/Power/Steel Industry” which gave an official sanction for co-incineration of industrial and municipal wastes in cement plants. This directive will effectively allow cement plants across India to incinerate a range of hazardous, post-production waste from manufacturing and a variety of post consumer municipal waste.
read moreOut of the Frying Pan, Into the Fire
New EPA loophole threatens community health, the climate, and local economies by allowing waste burning along with coal
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GAIA pub shows how waste incinerators undermine recycling
Waste incineration undermines recycling. This conflict is particularly clear in so-called “waste-to-energy” incinerators, and is also true for burners that do not recover energy. The cases presented in this briefing paper clearly illustrate the many ways that incineration has worked against waste prevention and recycling in various locations around the globe.
read moreThe “WTE” Incinerator wastes more energy than it generates
The proposed and approved regional incinerator planned for Frederick County is also referred to as a “Waste to Energy” facility. But the evidence reveals that, rather than producing what might be considered bonus energy, converting the typical municipal waste stream to ash and energy is actually a waste OF energy.
read moreThe Danger of Corporate Landfill Gas-to-Energy Schemes and How to Fix It
This report, in partnership with Recycling Works (a project of GAIA and the Teamsters) and the Sierra Club, examines why organics recycling is an alternative that prevents greenhouse gases and creates jobs.
read moreBurning Recycling
Community recycling efforts around the country are getting burned by incineration. Despite financial numbers that don’t add up, why is incineration of solid waste – and recoverable materials – for energy recovery on the rise? What policies and incentives need to change to turn down the heat?
read moreMetro Vancouver should end garbage incineration: study
A new report urges Metro Vancouver not to build any new waste-to-energy plants and that its existing garbage incinerator in Burnaby be phased out
read moreFacts Rule Out Trash Gasification
Since WW II attempts to gasify municipal solid waste (MSW) have failed repeatedly. Processing trash with high heat is (1) polluting; (2) expensive; (3) energy inefficient; (4) destroys resources that could be reused, recycled, or composted; and (5) generates slag and other “by-products” that have to be landfilled.
read moreIncineration overcapacity and waste shipping in Europe: the end of the proximity principle?
The approval of the Waste Framework Directive1 -WFD- introduced some important changes in the European waste market. One of the most relevant issues regarding environmental impacts of the WFD is that it opened the incineration market at a European level. This means...
read moreEU Double Standards on Waste Management & Climate Policy
The EU’s support for incinerators and landfill gas systems through the carbon market contradicts its own waste management policy.
read moreBurning Public Money for Dirty Energy
New Report: Renewable energy subsidies are being siphoned off by the incinerator industry
read moreAnalyst: Waste-to-energy ‘not clean’
A study released Thursday by an environmental group reported that waste-to-energy trash incinerators release lead and mercury at a greater rate than some coal-fired plants.
read moreStudy: Md. trash-burning power plants pollute more than coal
Maryland’s two major trash-burning power plants produce more pollution than the state’s four largest coal-fired plants, according to a new study.
read moreToxic Scandal, Toxic Threat and Environmental Racism
Greenaction has been working with the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice and local community groups to build public opposition to SunEnergy LLC’s proposal for a toxic incinerator technology that is being proposed for a low income, community of color that is already burdened with a legacy of toxic industrial pollution and climate change impacts.
read moreClean Development Mechanism & Waste
What’s wrong with the CDM support to waste-to-energy?
Climate policy attempts to reduce methane emissions from waste have mainly focused on the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which was established not only to reduce emissions as cost-effectively as possible, but also to promote sustainable development and technology transfer to developing countries. Unfortunately, in the case of the waste sector, considerable evidence indicates that the projects approved by the CDM are not achieving either goal; indeed, in many cases they are directly undermining both.
What’s wrong with the CDM support to waste-to-energy?
Climate policy attempts to reduce methane emissions from waste have mainly focused on the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which was established not only to reduce emissions as cost-effectively as possible, but also to promote sustainable development and technology transfer to developing countries. Unfortunately, in the case of the waste sector, considerable evidence indicates that the projects approved by the CDM are not achieving either goal; indeed, in many cases they are directly undermining both.
read moreCDM Misadventures In Waste Management
The Clean Development Mechanism’s flagship waste management project in India is turning into a multi-faceted disaster, revealing flaws in both the carbon credit mechanism as well as the corporate-driven, technology-focused approached to climate change mitigation.
read moreCDM: Financing the Demise of Waste Worker Livelihood, Community Health, and Climate
Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) funding for incineration and landfills currently represents a lost opportunity to reduce pollution and help improve the welfare and standards of living of some of the poorest people in the world. Additionally, this funding incentivizes the destruction of valuable resources that would otherwise have been recovered with significant climate benefits. The following are a few examples of waste projects that have been approved or are being considered for CDM approval, and where there is growing community and waste worker opposition to the project.
read moreWhy incineration is a very bad idea in the Twenty First Century
by Paul Connett, PhD An introduction to myself. I taught environmental chemistry and toxicology at St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY. I reached the rank of full professor and retired in May 2006. Since 1985 I have researched the dangers of incineration (I have...
read moreClean Development Mechanism Funding For Waste Incineration: Financing the Demise of Waste Worker Livelihood, Community Health, and Climate
At least 15 million people around the world depend upon waste picking and the recovery of resources from waste for their livelihoods. Recovering waste resources through re-use, recycling, and composting serves to create many more jobs than waste incinerators and landfills.
read morePyrolysis, Gasification and Plasma Incineration: Part 1
Part 1, Background: Dr. Jorge Emmanuel, PhD., environmental scientist, offers a comprehensive introduction to explain the science and problems behind pyrolysis, gasification and plasma incineration.
read morePyrolysis, Gasification and Plasma Incineration Part 2
Part 2, Background: Dr. Jorge Emmanuel, PhD., environmental scientist, offers a comprehensive introduction to explain the science and problems behind pyrolysis, gasification and plasma incineration.
read morePyrolysis, Gasification and Plasma Incineration Part 3
Part 3, Background: Dr. Jorge Emmanuel, PhD., environmental scientist, offers a comprehensive introduction to explain the science and problems behind pyrolysis, gasification and plasma incineration.
read moreGreenpeace Incinerator Tour
Learn how incinerators work and what are the possible impacts to community health and the environment.
Take the Greenpeace Incinerator Tour now!
read moreReport: Trash-to-energy plants pose environmental hazard
Eight national environmental groups are releasing a report today that, in Vermont, may mark the opening salvo in a debate over plans by an electric utility and a major trash hauler to someday build several trash-to-energy plants in the state.
read moreReport: An Industry Blowing Smoke
10 reasons why gasification, pyrolysis & plasma incineration are not “green solutions”
read moreFactsheet on wastepickers and climate change
Wastepickers reduce greenhouse gas emissions through increased recycling; yet they are increasingly in conflict with “waste-to-energy” projects.
read morePrevent Cancer Now launches new website with Anti-incineration tool
Ottawa-based activist group Prevent Cancer Now has just launched a great new website. A large part of Prevent Cancer Now's work focuses on prevention and incinerator-related health concerns. Their new website features an Incinerator Tool-Kit, complete with great...
read moreMercury Rising: Reducing Global Emissions From Burning Mercury-added Products
The atmospheric mercury (Hg) emissions from waste have long been inadequately understood and seriously underestimated. This report scrutinizes the largest contributor to mercury in the waste stream – mercury-added products – and greatly improves our global understanding of this source of emissions.
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