=======================Electronic Edition========================
RACHEL’S HAZARDOUS WASTE NEWS #289
—June 10, 1992—
News and resources for environmental justice.
——
Environmental Research Foundation
P.O. Box 5036, Annapolis, MD 21403
Fax (410) 263-8944; Internet: erf@igc.apc.org
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THE RECENT HISTORY OF SOLID WASTE:
GOOD ALTERNATIVES ARE NOW AVAILABLE
Do you remember the organization Keep American Beautiful from the
1960s? Few people knew it was an industry association formed by
America’s largest corporations. Their symbol was a proud Indian
with a tear in his eye. Their main focus seemed to be an
anti-litter campaign. But there was more to it than that.
According to the conventional wisdom of the day, to keep the
postwar economy expanding, waste disposal capacity would need to
keep growing. To develop and maintain a throw-away society, you
needed to have plenty of “away” places. By 1960 anyone familiar
with water pollution literature could see that burying waste in
the ground was guaranteed to cause trouble. (See RHWN #97, #98.)
In the late ’60s Keep American Beautiful formed a non-profit
research group called the National Center for Solid Waste
Disposal. This soon became the National Center for Resource
Recovery. Resource recovery meant incineration.[1] Industry had
found its answer to the solid waste problem.
By the early 1970s, this industry association had EPA [U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency] convinced that incineration made
sense for solid waste disposal. After the first energy crisis
occurred, in 1973, the federal Department of Energy (DOE) came on
board; DOE became enthusiastic about “energy recovery” from the
incineration of municipal solid waste.
As the ’70s progressed, landfill rules were getting stricter, so
landfilling was getting more expensive. The 1976 Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) greatly increased the costs
of landfilling. In 1980 there were 20,000 landfills but by 1986
there were only 6000 remaining; during this period the “landfill
crisis” emerged.
Simultaneously, by the mid-’70s the nuclear power industry had
come upon hard times. The industry received no new orders for
nuclear power plants after 1975; by 1979 when the Three Mile
Island disaster occurred, the handwriting was visible to
investors everywhere. Companies that built nuclear power plants
had teams of people skilled at making large machines, and the
four big nuclear manufacturers–Combustion Engineering, Babcock &
Wilcox, General Electric, and Westinghouse–began to manufacture
solid waste incinerators.[2]
DOE’s goal was to build 200 to 250 new solid waste incinerators
by 1992, or 4 to 5 in each state. According to a 1980 plan, these
would burn 75% of the nation’s trash and would require a capital
investment somewhere between $11.5 billion and $21.5 billion, or
roughly $50 million to $100 million per incinerator.
In 1980 DOE projected that by 1987 there would be 160,000
tons-per-day of incineration capacity in the U.S. and double this
by 1992. But in reality in 1988 incineration capacity was only
50,000 tons per day,[3] and it was expanding at a snail’s pace.
In 1985 there were 42 new incinerators ordered, but by 1987 it
was down to 25 and by 1989 new orders has dropped to 10. In 1987,
for the first time in recent memory, more capacity was canceled
(35,656 tons per day) than was ordered (20,585 tons per day).[4]
The incineration industry had hit a wall.
That wall was made up of local grass-roots citizens concerned
about many aspects of solid waste incineration: dollar cost,
hazardous air pollution, toxic ash, destruction of material
resources, waste of energy, the political corruption that
accompanies multi-billion-dollar public works projects, and the
gobbling up of small, local waste haulers by the incineration
giants.
Citizens took on the incineration industry in many ways. They
organized a frontal assault to kill incineration proposals one by
one, but, equally importantly, they developed waste reduction,
recycling and composting programs that starved incinerators by
diverting trash. Eighty percent of solid waste can be recycled
and composted, or it can be incinerated–but it it’s an either/or
proposition. If you build an incinerator, you foreclose your
recycling and composting options for the lifetime of the furnace
(20 years or more).
Incineration has been defeated at the local level. But the battle
is not over. The incineration industry and its friends in
government are doing their best to make an end run around local
decision-makers. In California the industry has lobbied hard to
have incineration included in that state’s definition of
recycling. In Ohio, the industry has lobbied to allow toxic
incinerator ash to be “recycled” for roadway construction. In
Michigan and New York, compliant state governments have allowed
toxic ash to be exempted from hazardous waste rules. In
Connecticut, state government obliged the industry by overriding
local zoning laws to make it nearly impossible for citizens to
oppose the siting of incinerators.
But the demise of the nuclear power industry showed that even
America’s leading corporations, heavily subsidized by government
handouts, cannot keep a bad technology alive. Municipal solid
waste incineration is not thriving for the same reasons: despite
enthusiastic support and subsidies by federal and state
governments, and enormous backing from private corporations,
incineration is a bad idea, doomed to fail.
Meanwhile alternative technologies–which, together, go by the
name of “materials recovery”–are expanding rapidly. The
Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) in 1991 published BEYOND
40 PERCENT highlighting 17 communities that are recycling and
composting up to 57% of their total household, commercial and
institutional solid wastes.[1] The leader is Berlin Township,
N.J., a town of 5629 people. But even a large city like Seattle
(population: 497,000) has already achieved 36% and is steadily
climbing toward its goal of 65%. Rural communities, suburban
communities, and large urban areas can all recycle upwards of 50%
of their solid wastes. ILSR expects communities will ultimately
learn to recover more than 75% of their trash.
Having examined the materials recovery programs in many towns and
cities, ILSR makes these observations about key elements of
successful programs:
1) Comprehensive composting programs–year-round collection of
many types of yard waste at curbside, and incentives for
landscapers to compost their yard waste.
2) Mandatory participation. Successful materials recovery
programs are not voluntary; a law must be passed requiring people
to participate.
3) Materials must be recovered not only from single-and
multi-family homes, but also from commercial and institutional
establishments.
4) A wide variety of materials must be targeted for recovery, not
just metal cans, glass, and paper. The most successful programs
aim to collect aluminum, batteries, brush, corrugated cardboard,
christmas trees, ferrous (iron-containing) cans, glass,
high-grade paper, leaves, mixed paper, newspapers, oil, plastics,
scrap metal, tires, white goods [appliances and furniture], and
wood waste.
Food waste and construction debris are other categories that are
being recovered in some locales.
The Center for the Biology of Natural Systems (CBNS at Queens
College in Flushing, N.Y.) is currently running a successful
pilot program composting food waste from the Park Slope
neighborhood of Brooklyn, demonstrating that urban composting
programs are viable.
In Baltimore, the Loading Dock is a non-profit organization set
up to receive sinks, bathtubs, cabinets and other construction
materials removed from homes during remodeling as well as excess
materials from contractors, manufacturers and distributors. They
sell these materials at 25% to 35% below retail price to other
non-profits, and for low-income housing. Presently, good are
donated to them from as far away as West Virginia and New York.
Begun in 1984 with a $35,000 seed grant, they became
self-sustaining after seven years. Their budget last year was
$346,000. They figure they’ve kept 20,000 tons of building
materials out of local landfills.
Their latest experiment is to park a truck at the local landfill
to collect throw-aways from do-it-yourselfers who are remodeling.
At the Howard County (Md.) landfill on a recent Saturday they
collected 2.5 tons of materials in four hours. They’re now
negotiating to park trucks at other area landfills.
They’re also computerizing their inventory, in preparation for
cooperation with similar organizations in other cities, perhaps
as far away as Mexico and Canada. “They’ve got a sizable donation
of light fixtures; we’ve got a lot of doors, so they’ll send us
down a truck full of lights and pick up a truckload of doors,”
says Ted Rouse, the Loading Dock’s vice-president. For further
information contact Hope Cucina, director, The Loading Dock, 2523
Gwynn Falls Parkway, Baltimore, Md. 21216; hone (410) 728-3625.
One of the most interesting experiments is called Wastewise, a
community resource center for the town of Halton Hills
(population: 40,000) just east of Toronto, Canada. Wastewise was
begun as a protest against proposals to fill a local quarry with
20 to 30 million tons of garbage, and to build a large solid
waste incinerator. Rita and Len Landry and some friends started
Wastewise to demonstrate that people could do something sensible
with trash.
Begun with a $250,000 government grant, Wastewise now has 3
full-time employees, six summer students, and 60 volunteers.
Wastewise inhabits a warehouse with four sections: (1)
Information and exhibits on waste reduction and waste
avoidance–“This is our main function,” says project manager
Diana van de Valk. (2) a giant flea market where they sell
reusable goods for 50 cents a pound (25 cents for furniture); (3)
a repair shop where volunteers fix appliances, bikes and anything
else repairable; and (4) recycling of cans, newspapers, and
bottles. Waste reduction is their real passion, and they’re off
to a promising start.
Wastewise is the subject of a new 30-minute video, WASTEWISE: A
COMMUNITY RESOURCE CENTER, from: Video Active Productions, Rt. 2,
Box 322, Canton, NY 13617; phone (315) 386-8797. $25.00.
–Peter Montague, Ph.D.
[4] Brenda Platt, cited above, pgs. 3-4.
Descriptor terms: keep america beautiful; national center for
solid waste disposal; doe; incinerators; nuclear power;
recycling; ilsr; cbns; the loading dock; wastewise; incineration;