![]() ![]() Waste incinerators are dirty and expensive. It provides recommendations for how communities can instead invest in healthier, more economic, and ultimately more sustainable waste management and energy systems. The report concludes by outlining ways to combat this dirty industry, calling on state legislators to strengthen laws that ensure resources and clean energy commitments billed as renewable are in fact so. Such definitions, promoted by the incineration industry, make burning trash eligible for subsidies that put the practice in direct competition with renewable energy projects including wind and solar. The overlap between where incinerators are located and which states classify the practice as “renewable” is no coincidence. 3| “Renewable” trash burning is a legal oxymoron.Ī majority of incinerators (52 out of 76 operating plants or 68 percent) are located in states that classify municipal solid waste incineration as a renewable source of energy, as illustrated below. Pollution produced by burning garbage subjects communities near waste incinerators - disproportionately made up of low-income, people of color - to harmful, costly, and avoidable public health risks. 2| Incinerators provide a classic case of environmental injustice. Incinerators also lose in a jobs comparison composting sites, for example, can create four times the number of local jobs per unit of waste processed than incinerators. Tip fees (i.e., the waste disposal fees paid by haulers and ultimately passed down to cities and customers) at incinerators are often two to three times higher than comparable recycling or composting costs. Incinerators have proven risky investments for cities and utilities, particularly as energy prices decline and a growing number of plants are unable to cover operating costs or remain competitive. ![]() In a moment of fundamental transformation in the energy sector, three realities of waste incineration demonstrate the need for stronger definitions of renewable energy and lend support to grassroots efforts fighting to close the 76 waste incinerators that continue to operate across the country today: 1 | The economics of waste incineration plants don’t add up. Table of Contents Executive Summary An Incineration Primer “Waste-to-Energy” or Wasted Energy Economics of Incinerators Don’t Add Up Environmental Injustice Renewable Trash is a Legal Oxymoron Promoting Energy Democracy and Waste to Wealth, Instead Conclusion Notes Read the full report below, or click on the cover image at left to download it as a PDF. Yet, aging, costly, and polluting solid waste incinerators have been bolstered by a dirty secret - 23 states legally classify incineration as “renewable” in their energy goals and commitments. Burning garbage to generate power is neither clean nor renewable.
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