tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/incinerators-50350/articles
Incinerators – The Conversation
2023-06-01T15:03:35Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/206711
2023-06-01T15:03:35Z
2023-06-01T15:03:35Z
Curious Kids: where does our rubbish go?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529554/original/file-20230601-10948-hw2y25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=33%2C33%2C5622%2C3731&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/little-girl-putting-waste-bin-outdoor-660747250">GOLFX/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><strong>Where does our rubbish go? – Tsubamé, aged nine, London, UK</strong></p>
<p>Modern life causes lots of different types of rubbish. It comes from households, hospitals, schools, farming, shops, offices, industry and building projects. Just the rubbish from our homes can include <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2015.03.034">food</a>, packaging, plastics, metals, glass, paper, furniture, <a href="https://digital.detritusjournal.com/articles/end-of-use-textiles-gifting-and-giving-in-relation-to-societal-and-situational-factors/13">clothes</a>, shoes, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2020.10.016">electronics</a>, broken toys and garden wastes.</p>
<p>We produce <a href="https://www.statista.com/topics/4983/waste-generation-worldwide/#topicOverview">billions of tonnes of rubbish every year</a>, and we need to manage it carefully to protect human health and our environment. Waste is <a href="https://sensoneo.com/global-waste-index/">managed in many different ways</a> across our planet.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282267/original/file-20190702-126345-1np1y7m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282267/original/file-20190702-126345-1np1y7m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282267/original/file-20190702-126345-1np1y7m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282267/original/file-20190702-126345-1np1y7m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282267/original/file-20190702-126345-1np1y7m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282267/original/file-20190702-126345-1np1y7m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282267/original/file-20190702-126345-1np1y7m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/curious-kids-36782">Curious Kids</a> is a series by <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk">The Conversation</a> that gives children the chance to have their questions about the world answered by experts. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to <a href="mailto:curiouskids@theconversation.com">curiouskids@theconversation.com</a> and make sure you include the asker’s first name, age and town or city. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we’ll do our very best.</em></p>
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<p>A way of thinking about how we get rid of our rubbish is called the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2015.03.014">waste hierarchy</a>. It puts the different ways we deal with waste in order of preference, from the worst ways – such as burning rubbish – at the bottom of the hierarchy, to the best ways at the top. </p>
<h2>At the bottom</h2>
<p>The bottom of the hierarchy is waste disposal. This means getting rid of rubbish without trying to use it or turn it in to something else. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Graphic of an inverted triangle in colours from green at the top to red at the bottom" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529561/original/file-20230601-15-ovr320.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529561/original/file-20230601-15-ovr320.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529561/original/file-20230601-15-ovr320.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529561/original/file-20230601-15-ovr320.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529561/original/file-20230601-15-ovr320.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529561/original/file-20230601-15-ovr320.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529561/original/file-20230601-15-ovr320.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The waste hierarchy, with the best options at the top and the worst at the bottom.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/waste-hierarchy-vector-cone-illustration-evaluation-2135303245">Whale Design/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>One way of doing this is to put rubbish in an open dumpsite. This is land where people tip solid or liquid waste with no treatment or pollution control. Dumpsites like this take <a href="https://www.iswa.org/closing-the-worlds-biggest-dumpsites-task-force/?v=79cba1185463">40% of the world’s rubbish</a>. But open dumpsites have bad impacts on the environment. They produce gases that lead to climate change, and they can make people ill. There is a <a href="https://www.iswa.org/closing-the-worlds-biggest-dumpsites-task-force/?v=79cba1185463">plan to close all open dumpsites</a>.</p>
<p>Another way is to use landfill – putting rubbish in a hole or heap that has been designed to safely hold rubbish. Landfill sites are carefully built to stop liquid pollutants and gases escaping. <a href="https://theconversation.com/landfill-gas-how-it-forms-and-why-it-can-be-dangerous-168118">Landfill gas can be very dangerous</a>. When a landfill is full, it is safely covered with soil and can be used to make parks or sports pitches.</p>
<p>You may be surprised to know that we used to dump rubbish in our oceans. This is <a href="https://www.imo.org/en/OurWork/Environment/Pages/London-Convention-Protocol.aspx">now banned</a>, but lots of plastic rubbish still <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/06/90-of-plastic-polluting-our-oceans-comes-from-just-10-rivers/">gets into our oceans</a>, killing marine birds and animals. </p>
<p>Another way to get rid of rubbish is to burn it, which can produce energy. <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-china-people-are-protesting-about-the-governments-rubbish-policy-on-waste-incineration-32443">People worry about burning rubbish</a> because incinerators may release nasty harmful pollutants into the air. In some places, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-we-safely-burn-waste-to-make-fuel-like-they-do-in-denmark-well-its-complicated-148250">gases are cleaned</a> before they are released. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/0734-242X(83)90055-1">Composting</a> is another way of getting something useful out of rubbish. It turns waste food <a href="https://theconversation.com/city-compost-programs-turn-garbage-into-black-gold-that-boosts-food-security-and-social-justice-136169">into compost</a>, which we can use in gardens and on farms to improve the soil. </p>
<h2>In the middle</h2>
<p>In the middle of the hierarchy is <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-16-3627-1_1">recycling</a>. This means collecting materials in rubbish, such as plastic, paper, metal or glass, and using them to make new products. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Girl sorting cans into recycling bin" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529563/original/file-20230601-15-kfhstp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529563/original/file-20230601-15-kfhstp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529563/original/file-20230601-15-kfhstp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529563/original/file-20230601-15-kfhstp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529563/original/file-20230601-15-kfhstp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529563/original/file-20230601-15-kfhstp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529563/original/file-20230601-15-kfhstp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Recycling.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/little-kids-separating-recycle-can-trash-612151712">Rawpixel.com</a></span>
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<p>Rubbish that can be recycled is collected from our homes in special boxes or wheeled bins. It is then transported to a recycling centre where it is sorted into the various materials. The next steps depend on what is being recycled.</p>
<p>For example, glass is recycled by melting the jars and bottles being recycled. The melted glass can then be used to make new glass objects. Paper cannot be melted and so it is broken into smaller pieces. It is then mixed with water, and this mix is used to make new sheets of paper.</p>
<h2>The best approach</h2>
<p>The best ways to deal with rubbish are reuse and prevention. </p>
<p>Reuse means using something again instead of throwing it away. For instance, instead of putting a jumper you don’t like in the bin, you could give it to a friend or take it to a charity shop. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956053X17300594?via%3Dihub">Reuse was very popular</a> when people didn’t have much money, and it is <a href="https://www.circularonline.co.uk/opinions/lets-get-this-reuse-party-started/">becoming popular again</a> to save money and improve our environment. There is an increasing interest in activities such as “<a href="https://www.southampton.ac.uk/sustainabilityaction/experience/swapshop.page">swap shops</a>” where people swap items they don’t want for items they would like. Lots of people use the internet to donate things to charity or buy and sell secondhand items. </p>
<p>Waste prevention means doing things to stop rubbish being created in the first place – such as using cutlery you can wash and use again instead of a disposable plastic fork or spoon. </p>
<p>So there are lots of ways to <a href="https://www.circularonline.co.uk/features/time-to-bury-landfill-for-good/">manage rubbish</a> – and we need to focus on waste prevention, reuse and recycling to protect and improve the environment.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206711/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ian Williams receives funding from EU Horizon 2020 and EPSRC. Ian Williams is a member of the International Solid Waste Association, the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management and the Royal Society of Chemistry.</span></em></p>
Rubbish can be reused or recycled – or it may end up in a dumpsite.
Ian Williams, Professor of Applied Environmental Science, University of Southampton
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/183968
2022-07-20T12:20:39Z
2022-07-20T12:20:39Z
Human garbage is a plentiful but dangerous source of food for polar bears finding it harder to hunt seals on dwindling sea ice
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469265/original/file-20220616-26-du02br.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C5%2C3950%2C2488&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Scenes like this one are becoming increasingly common in the Arctic.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/picture-taken-on-october-31-2018-shows-polar-bears-feeding-news-photo/1128697585">ALEXANDER GRIR/Contributor/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>More than 50 hungry <a href="https://tass.com/emergencies/1043985">polar bears invaded the Russian coastal village of Belushya Guba</a> over a period of three months, attracted by the local dump. Some bears entered homes and businesses by ripping doors off hinges and climbing through windows. These <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/wsb.783">invasions have been steadily increasing in Arctic settlements</a>, though this case, in the winter of 2019, was one of the worst. While few people have been attacked, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2020.e01320">the number of dead bears has climbed</a>. </p>
<p>I’m a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=TUOTijQAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra">biologist who has studied bears</a> for the past 30 years. Over millennia, polar bears evolved an ability to locate food in the harsh Arctic climate. Now, as climate change causes a loss of sea ice, their foraging season is shorter and they’re forced onto land far more than ever before. Once on land, bears’ noses draw them into villages where they find ample unsecured food.</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=iSP0d_YAAAAJ">My</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Nt6hDRMAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">colleagues</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=rJ3oyPgAAAAJ">and</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=xxdom7wAAAAJ">I</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=qKKVEpoAAAAJ">recently</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=list_works&hl=en&authuser=1&user=HfT0bVkAAAAJ&gmla=AJsN-F6wO1swTqdsYNr2Ivr6Ro4h2GznkesMa-VSsoUIntqeqWC8u8WPcpPwzn428pKdpongTj2kbF0w-6PtKEgDg9ShWcyTd38k411Zn61PtDEefeY7oiw">published</a> a paper on how human food and waste are becoming a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605322000278">major threat to polar bear existence</a> – and jeopardize human safety. We also offer solutions. </p>
<h2>Masters of scent and memory</h2>
<p>Polar bears live in an extremely austere environment where finding food drives their every move. To aid them in their perpetual hunt for food, polar bears have <a href="https://press.jhu.edu/books/title/3041/wild-mammals-north-america">one of the most highly developed senses of smell</a> of any animal on the planet. Their ability to detect scents from afar can be a problem, however, when the scent is not coming from seals – their main food resource. </p>
<p>Smelly substances associated with human villages can also attract polar bears. These scents include game meat hung outside homes, open dumps, barbecue grills and even bird seed. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469262/original/file-20220616-24-f4g9k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A mother polar bear and two cubs snuggle near a metal gate and trash can." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469262/original/file-20220616-24-f4g9k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469262/original/file-20220616-24-f4g9k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469262/original/file-20220616-24-f4g9k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469262/original/file-20220616-24-f4g9k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469262/original/file-20220616-24-f4g9k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469262/original/file-20220616-24-f4g9k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469262/original/file-20220616-24-f4g9k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Not only is this mother bear putting herself in harm’s way, but she is teaching her cubs dangerous behavior.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Dick Beck/Polar Bears International</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Once a polar bear has discovered a food source, it is not going to forget about it. While studies are few, work in zoos suggests bears are among the most curious mammals, investigating and exploring new objects <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/3872860">long after other mammals have abandoned them</a>. That, coupled with their extraordinary ability to remember both the timing and locations of seasonal food opportunities, serves them very well. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469285/original/file-20220616-26-8hk1wr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A polar bear on ice with a seal carcass in its mouth." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469285/original/file-20220616-26-8hk1wr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469285/original/file-20220616-26-8hk1wr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469285/original/file-20220616-26-8hk1wr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469285/original/file-20220616-26-8hk1wr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469285/original/file-20220616-26-8hk1wr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469285/original/file-20220616-26-8hk1wr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469285/original/file-20220616-26-8hk1wr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">As nature intended – a young male polar bear feeds on the remains of a seal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/young-male-polar-bear-feeding-on-the-remains-of-a-killed-news-photo/646540302">Arterra/Contributor/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>At the top of the Arctic food chain, polar bears feed largely on ringed seals (<em>Pusa hispida</em>), which feed on fish, which in turn feed on plankton. Disruption of this food chain will have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.228049">dire consequences for the stability of the entire ecosystem</a>. The U.S. has classified the once-abundant <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2008/05/15/E8-11105/endangered-and-threatened-wildlife-and-plants-determination-of-threatened-status-for-the-polar-bear">polar bear as threatened</a>, meaning it is in danger of going extinct if trends continue.</p>
<h2>Disappearing sea ice</h2>
<p>Polar bears are ambush predators. They attack seals surfacing through holes in the sea ice to breathe. In the water, bears are good swimmers but not nearly agile enough to catch a fleeing seal, so they rely on sea ice as a platform from which to hunt.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470605/original/file-20220623-51375-5klmwj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Side by side maps comparing sea ice from 1980 and 2020. The ice in the 2020 map looks to be roughly half the size of the 1980 map." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470605/original/file-20220623-51375-5klmwj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470605/original/file-20220623-51375-5klmwj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470605/original/file-20220623-51375-5klmwj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470605/original/file-20220623-51375-5klmwj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470605/original/file-20220623-51375-5klmwj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470605/original/file-20220623-51375-5klmwj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470605/original/file-20220623-51375-5klmwj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Maps show Arctic sea ice on Sept. 1, 1980, and Sept. 1, 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Map from ClimateReanalyzer.org, Climate Change Institute, University of Maine. Data credit to Sea Ice Index, Version 3, National Snow and Ice Data Center.</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>Climate change has caused an alarming decrease in polar sea ice. Approximately <a href="https://doi.org/10.1890/14-1129.1">40% less ice exists today than only three decades ago</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470836/original/file-20220624-18-zw9nbf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Side by side maps comparing the thickness of sea ice from 1985 and 2021. The ice in the 2021 map is considerably thinner than that of the 1984 map." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470836/original/file-20220624-18-zw9nbf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470836/original/file-20220624-18-zw9nbf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470836/original/file-20220624-18-zw9nbf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470836/original/file-20220624-18-zw9nbf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470836/original/file-20220624-18-zw9nbf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470836/original/file-20220624-18-zw9nbf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470836/original/file-20220624-18-zw9nbf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Maps from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Climate show decreasing coverage of longstanding perennial ice in the Arctic between March 1985 and 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Data credit to Sea Ice Index, Version 3, National Snow and Ice Data Center.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Not only does less sea ice cover the Arctic Ocean, but what remains <a href="https://www.climate.gov/news-features/videos/arctics-oldest-ice-vanishing">is not as thick as it used to be</a> – a prelude to what will eventually become an ice-free Arctic basin. When that happens, all polar bears will be forced ashore, without the ability to hunt seals.</p>
<p>Polar bears’ cruising the shores and entering human settlements are direct results of reduced sea ice – and the loss of hunting opportunities that come with it. </p>
<h2>The threat of unsecured garbage</h2>
<p>Indigenous peoples and more recent arrivals make up the <a href="https://www.arctic-council.org/explore/topics/arctic-peoples/">nearly 4 million people living throughout the Arctic</a> in the countries of Russia, Norway, Greenland, Canada and the U.S. The economies of these <a href="https://www.arctic-council.org/explore/topics/arctic-peoples/">villages are largely subsistence-based</a> and are by no means affluent. Historically, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alex-Zahara/publication/273771889_The_Arctic_Wastes/links/59e685c4aca2721fc227acd3/The-Arctic-Wastes.pdf">food was never discarded in these areas</a>. But today’s throwaway global economy has resulted in dumps full of waste, including foodstuffs. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469359/original/file-20220616-13-q6fbdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A massive dump with the Arctic ocean in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469359/original/file-20220616-13-q6fbdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469359/original/file-20220616-13-q6fbdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469359/original/file-20220616-13-q6fbdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469359/original/file-20220616-13-q6fbdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469359/original/file-20220616-13-q6fbdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469359/original/file-20220616-13-q6fbdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469359/original/file-20220616-13-q6fbdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The garbage dump of Ilulissat and the Disko Bay, Greenland.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/view-over-the-garbage-dump-of-ilulissat-and-the-disko-bay-news-photo/838083236">Education Images/Contributor/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When polar bears enter these dumps in search of food, they are attracted to strong-smelling substances, some of which are not even edible. For example, antifreeze attracts bears – and is fatal when ingested. The many chemicals in dumps become toxic potions, which either <a href="https://doi.org/10.1139/z85-340">kill bears outright or weaken their immune systems</a>. Additionally, bears have been known to ingest nonfoods. Wood, plastics and metal have all been found in dead bears’ stomachs. Wraps, bags and other membranelike items <a href="https://doi.org/10.1139/z85-340">jam up the small opening from the bear’s stomach to its intestine</a>, resulting in a slow and painful death.</p>
<p>Once bears have thoroughly rummaged through dumps, they spin off into nearby villages – confronting people, attacking their pets and livestock and foraging around structures, within which they expect to find food. </p>
<p>Solutions already exist to remedy this situation. However, they require money and political will. </p>
<p>Electric fencing is highly effective at separating bears from garbage <a href="https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1029&context=icwdmhandbook">but can be costly for a small village</a>. Warehousing garbage, then barging it offsite to facilities where it can be safely disposed of, is also effective, but expensive. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2020.e01320">Incinerators have been used </a> in some villages like Churchill, Canada, and have greatly reduced the amount of garbage. But these solutions come at an even greater cost, so villages would need financial assistance to put them in place. Education about how to properly store bear-attracting foods and substances would also help address the problem. </p>
<p>In brown and black bear battlegrounds like Yellowstone and Yosemite, managers have long fought the problem of bears attracted by garbage, learned and succeeded. From a high of 1,584 human-bear incidents in 1998, <a href="https://doi.org/10.26077/vm5g-7q38">Yosemite recorded only 22 by the end of 2018 – a 99% decrease</a>. </p>
<p>The knowledge exists on how to put an end to “dump bears” – and all that goes with that unfortunate title. In the battle of bears and garbage, bears are most often the losers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183968/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom Smith and the other authors have received, and receive, funding through their respective private, state and federal institutions in order to conduct past and present polar bear research. They have not personally benefited from these funds other than to cover the costs of research. None of these authors benefits in any way from the content of this article. </span></em></p>
Polar bears are increasingly seeking sustenance in human trash because of melting sea ice and a loss of hunting opportunities. The result is a rise in human-bear conflict – and dead bears.
Thomas Scott Smith, Professor - Wildlife and Wildlands Conservation Program, Brigham Young University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/170919
2022-01-03T13:42:00Z
2022-01-03T13:42:00Z
Why can’t we throw all our trash into a volcano and burn it up?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435952/original/file-20211206-141213-f6fuq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=49%2C0%2C5472%2C3645&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lava flows from a fissure in the aftermath of eruptions from the Kilauea volcano on Hawaii's Big Island, May 22, 2018. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/lava-flows-from-a-fissure-in-the-aftermath-of-eruptions-news-photo/962057980">Andrew Richard Hara/Ena Media Hawaii via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption"></span>
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<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/curious-kids-us-74795">Curious Kids</a> is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">curiouskidsus@theconversation.com</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Why can’t we throw all our trash into a volcano and burn it up? – Georgine T.</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>It’s true that lava is hot enough to burn up some of our trash. When Kilauea erupted on the Big island of Hawaii in 2018, the lava flows were <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/lava-temperatures-were-about-2000-degrees-fahrenheit">hotter than 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,100 Celsius)</a>. That’s hotter than <a href="https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/venus/overview/">the surface of the planet Venus</a>, and hot enough to melt many rocks. It’s also as hot as waste incinerators, which usually burn garbage at <a href="https://www3.epa.gov/ttnchie1/mkb/documents/fthermal.pdf">1,800 to 2,200 F</a> (1,000-1,200 C). </p>
<p>[<em>Over 140,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletters to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-140ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>But not all lavas are the same temperature. The eruptions in Hawaii produce a type of lava called <a href="https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/vsc/glossary/basalt.html">basalt</a>. Basalt is much hotter and more fluid than the lavas that erupt at other volcanoes, like the thicker <a href="https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/vsc/glossary/dacite.html">dacite lava</a> that erupts at Mount St. Helens in Washington state. For example, the 2004-2008 eruption at Mount St. Helens produced a lava dome with surface temperatures less than about 1,300 F (704 C). </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435957/original/file-20211206-21-16nxx9j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Infographic on number and location of U.S. volcanoes" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435957/original/file-20211206-21-16nxx9j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435957/original/file-20211206-21-16nxx9j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435957/original/file-20211206-21-16nxx9j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435957/original/file-20211206-21-16nxx9j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435957/original/file-20211206-21-16nxx9j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435957/original/file-20211206-21-16nxx9j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435957/original/file-20211206-21-16nxx9j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There are 161 volcanoes in 14 U.S. states and territories. Scientists monitor them and warn nearby communities if they see signs that a volcano may erupt.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/us-one-earths-most-volcanically-active-countries">USGS</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Beyond temperature, there are other good reasons not to burn our trash in volcanoes. First, although lava at 2,000 degrees F can melt many materials in our trash – including food scraps, paper, plastics, glass and some metals – it’s not hot enough to melt many other common materials, including <a href="https://www.americanelements.com/meltingpoint.html">steel, nickel and iron</a>. </p>
<p>Second, there aren’t many volcanoes on Earth that have lava lakes, or bowl-like craters full of lava, that we could dump trash into. Of all of the thousands of volcanoes on Earth, scientists know of only <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/48856373">eight with active lava lakes</a>. They include <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/new-usgs-video-about-k-laueas-summit-eruption-now-online">Kilauea</a>, <a href="https://volcano.si.edu/volcano.cfm?vn=390020">Mount Erebus in Antarctica</a> and <a href="https://volcano.si.edu/volcano.cfm?vn=223030">Nyiragongo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo</a>. Most active volcanoes have craters filled with rocks and cooled lava, like <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/mount-st-helens/lava-flows-mount-st-helens">Mount St. Helens</a>, or with water, like <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/crater-lake-caldera-wizard-island-cinder-cone-and-lava-flows">Crater Lake in Oregon</a>. </p>
<p>The third problem is that dumping trash into those eight active lava lakes would be a very dangerous job. Lava lakes are covered with a crust of cooling lava, but just below that crust they are molten and intensely hot. If rocks or other materials fall onto the surface of a lava lake, they will break the crust, disrupt the underlying lava and cause an explosion. </p>
<p>This happened at Kilauea in 2015: Blocks of rock from the crater rim fell into the lava lake and caused a big explosion that <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/media/videos/rockfall-and-explosion-halemaumau-crater">ejected rocks and lava up and out of the crater</a>. Anyone who threw garbage into a lava lake would have to run away and dodge flaming garbage and lava.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/w8IaG2U65Is?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">An eruption from the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the Spanish island of La Palma on Sept. 30, 2021, produced clouds of toxic gas.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Suppose it was possible to dump trash safely into a lava lake: What would happen to the trash? When plastics, garbage and metals burn, they release a lot of toxic gases. Volcanoes already give off tons of toxic gases, including sulfur, chlorine and carbon dioxide. </p>
<p>Sulfur gases can create acidic fog, which we call “vog,” for “volcanic fog.” It can <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/observatories/hawaiian-volcano-observatory/volcanic-gas">kill plants and cause breathing problems for people nearby</a>. Mixing these already-dangerous volcanic gases with other gases from burning our trash would make the resulting fumes even more harmful for <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/lava-breakouts-access_road">people and plants near the volcano</a>. </p>
<p>Finally, many indigenous communities view nearby volcanoes as sacred places. For example, Halema’uma’u crater at Kilauea is considered the home of Pele, the native Hawaiian goddess of fire, and the area around the crater is <a href="https://www.hawaii.com/discover/culture/pele/">sacred to native Hawaiians</a>. Throwing trash into volcanoes would be a huge insult to those cultures.</p>
<hr>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emily Johnson receives funding from the U.S. Geological Survey </span></em></p>
Volcanoes might seem like nature’s incinerators, but using them to burn up trash would be dangerous and disrespectful to indigenous people who view them as sacred.
Emily Johnson, Research Geologist, US Geological Survey
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/152778
2021-01-07T15:09:08Z
2021-01-07T15:09:08Z
Health crisis: up to a billion tonnes of waste potentially burned in the open every year
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377553/original/file-20210107-19-9lgm6z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3543%2C2360&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/accra-ghana-marchapril-2016-worker-dump-1252179298">Aline Tong/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As much as one billion tonnes of waste could be burned in open and uncontrolled fires around the world each year, according to one <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/es502250z">estimate</a> – close to half of all the municipal solid waste generated on Earth. But even if the true total is a fraction of that amount, the impact on human health and the environment is likely to be profound, particularly for the hundreds of millions of people living in countries throughout the global south where burning rubbish outdoors is the main method of waste treatment.</p>
<p>Uncontrolled waste fires burn at much lower and inconsistent temperatures, which means combustion is incomplete. This releases substances from the waste and creates new ones as molecules are decomposed and reformed in the flames. Dioxins and related compounds are often formed when PVC is burned in open fires. At least 30 of these types of compound are considered harmful to human health. They can persist in the environment for years and in the human body for perhaps a decade or more. There is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10590500903310047">evidence</a> they can damage the brain and disrupt hormones.</p>
<p>In high-income countries such as the UK, waste incineration most often takes place in <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/waste-to-energy-52085">energy-from-waste plants</a> (sometimes abbreviated as EfW), which use expensive equipment to control the burn while generating heat and electricity. It takes a lot of money and sophisticated engineering to burn solid waste safely.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377550/original/file-20210107-15-1wuhtp7.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A graphic showing how hazardous emissions from waste burning reach people and the environment." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377550/original/file-20210107-15-1wuhtp7.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377550/original/file-20210107-15-1wuhtp7.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377550/original/file-20210107-15-1wuhtp7.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377550/original/file-20210107-15-1wuhtp7.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377550/original/file-20210107-15-1wuhtp7.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377550/original/file-20210107-15-1wuhtp7.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377550/original/file-20210107-15-1wuhtp7.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">How emissions from burning waste in the open reach people and the environment.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.raeng.org.uk/publications/reports/seel-global-review">Cook & Velis (2021)</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>People burn waste when their options are limited. Across low- and middle-income countries, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-earths-plastic-pollution-problem-could-look-by-2040-143220">two billion people</a> don’t have their solid waste collected at all, which means they have to take responsibility for disposing of items that have reached the end of their engineered life. If there is little space to dump on land, or no river nearby, the choice to burn becomes more appealing.</p>
<h2>A burning issue</h2>
<p>Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.5518/100/58">research</a> has found that open burning is not only a necessity but a means to an end. In some countries of the global south, it’s common practice for informal recyclers to set fire to electrical cables and burn away the PVC insulation so the copper can be sold – a much quicker and easier method than stripping it off manually. The same goes for other electronic components, such as the printed circuit boards found in computers and other home appliances. These contain <a href="https://theconversation.com/global-electronic-waste-up-21-in-five-years-and-recycling-isnt-keeping-up-141997">a wealth of valuable metals</a> that are bound with plastics.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A mass of colourful plastic-coated wires engulfed in flames." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377554/original/file-20210107-15-fery6y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377554/original/file-20210107-15-fery6y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377554/original/file-20210107-15-fery6y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377554/original/file-20210107-15-fery6y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377554/original/file-20210107-15-fery6y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377554/original/file-20210107-15-fery6y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377554/original/file-20210107-15-fery6y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Burning plastic produces airborne compounds that are thought to be hazardous to health.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/burning-copper-wiring-release-toxins-404761519">Unigraphoto/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In households, burning food and other biological waste reduces its smell and discourages foraging animals that might transmit disease. In hospitals and medical centres, materials that could carry pathogens can be neutralised by burning them, and even the <a href="https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/328146/9789241516228-eng.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">World Health Organization</a> encourages this when there is no other option. Despite these benefits, open burning of waste threatens the health and lives of those who have few choices but to inhale the emissions.</p>
<p>Part of the challenge is that local authorities are incentivised not to pay attention to open burning. Waste burned at the roadside doesn’t have to be collected and fires in dumpsites free up valuable space to deposit more rubbish. Superficially, combustion makes waste disappear. But in reality, it’s converted into hazardous substances that are much more easily dispersed and inhaled.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/global-electronic-waste-up-21-in-five-years-and-recycling-isnt-keeping-up-141997">Global electronic waste up 21% in five years, and recycling isn't keeping up</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>Waste burning has devastating consequences for those who are most exposed to it. Overwhelmingly, it’s the urban poor and waste pickers who make up the world’s informal recycling sector. Treating this problem at the level of entire systems of waste production and management is the only way to effectively address it. This means providing waste management services for all communities, urban and rural. But it also means designing and manufacturing products that cause less harm when burned, particularly in areas where there is a high risk of that happening.</p>
<p>Much of the waste burned in open fires is plastic, which <a href="https://theconversation.com/plastic-warms-the-planet-twice-as-much-as-aviation-heres-how-to-make-it-climate-friendly-116376">releases CO₂</a> and other greenhouse gasses. To make things even more challenging, those plastics that aren’t burned <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-earths-plastic-pollution-problem-could-look-by-2040-143220">might pollute the land and water</a> instead. Here lies an unsettling trade-off. Can the global community overcome decades of neglect to find a solution to one of the biggest environmental issues of our time?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/152778/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Costas Velis received funding from the Lloyd's Register Foundation for this project, which was commissioned by the Royal Academy of Engineering. He is a Chartered Waste and Resources Manager with the Chartered Institute of Wastes Management, serving in the Special Interest Group on Thermal Treatment. He is also a member of the International Solid Waste Association and leads the Marine Litter Task Force, as well as being a member of the Energy Recovery Working Group.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ed Cook received funding from the Lloyd's Register Foundation for this project, which was commissioned by the Royal Academy of Engineering. He is a Chartered Waste and Resources Manager with the Chartered Institute of Wastes Management.</span></em></p>
Two billion people worldwide lack a dedicated system of waste collection and management.
Costas Velis, Lecturer in Resource Efficiency Systems, University of Leeds
Ed Cook, Research Fellow in Circular Economy Systems, University of Leeds
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/121153
2019-07-31T10:53:26Z
2019-07-31T10:53:26Z
Working-class towns are becoming dumping grounds for waste
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286267/original/file-20190730-186801-uzsdpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C38%2C5126%2C3376&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Enough of this rubbish. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/truck-dumping-waste-landfill-site-645851818?studio=1">Shutterstock.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>My hometown of Corby is a former steelworks town in the East Midlands, UK. The town has among the lowest levels of <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/state-of-the-nation-2017">social mobility</a> in the country. In the BBC’s <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22000973">Great British Class Survey</a>, Corby was classified as a “precariat” town, which means that many residents are from the most disadvantaged social class in Britain. Now <a href="https://www3.northamptonshire.gov.uk/councilservices/environment-and-planning/planning/planning-policy/minerals-and-waste-planning-policy/Pages/update-of-the-adopted-minerals-and-waste-local-plan.aspx">the county council plans</a> to turn Corby into one of the country’s biggest receivers of waste, with potentially four plants processing rubbish brought in from London, Birmingham and beyond. </p>
<p>The latest <a href="https://www.northantstelegraph.co.uk/news/people/controversial-corby-incinerator-with-chimneys-half-the-size-of-blackpool-tower-up-for-discussion-1-8957404">plans under review</a>, submitted by the Devon-based Corby Ltd company, would involve importing 260,000 tonnes of waste into Corby each year, creating around 30 full-time jobs at a new energy recovery facility, where rubbish is burned to generate electricity. The proposed site is within 100 metres of a primary school and close to a struggling secondary school. This would mean an estimated 175 heavy goods vehicles transporting waste past disadvantaged children each day. </p>
<p>This risks signalling to young people that they don’t matter. Children were born in Corby with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2010/apr/16/corby-steelwords-compensation-fight">lifelong disabilities</a> from the inadequate disposal of toxic waste, following the closure of the steelworks just over 40 years ago, and the landmark ruling about <a href="https://www.casemine.com/judgement/uk/5a8ff7da60d03e7f57eb279b">this case</a> was only decided in 2009, so the trauma is fresh in the town’s collective memory. And dirt has had a deep and damaging meaning for working-class communities, which planners need to appreciate.</p>
<h2>Dirt’s deeper meanings</h2>
<p>A leading scholar on class, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2152747.Formations_of_Class_Gender">Beverley Skeggs</a>, has shown how the English working class have historically been associated with dirt, filth and waste. For example, under the Victorian <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Poor-Law">poor laws</a>, the most socioeconomically disadvantaged people were <a href="https://orca.cf.ac.uk/62515/1/Laura%20Foster%20PhD%20Thesis.pdf">viewed as dirty, diseased, idle and immoral</a>, and therefore held to be undeserving of state support and sent to the workhouse. Such laws formalised standards of respectability, which still resonate today in the pressure felt by working-class people to work hard, avoid claiming benefits, raise children well, keep a clean house <a href="https://intheirownwriteblog.com">and so on</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/people/roxana-willis#tab-person-publications">My own research</a> has found that residents in Corby uphold norms of respectability. Cleanliness is very important, and being associated with dirt or rubbish can have a negative impact on someone’s self-esteem. Calling someone dirty or unclean is a significant insult – and that extends to calling someone’s house, car, street, estate or town dirty.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286393/original/file-20190731-186792-1u4ogts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286393/original/file-20190731-186792-1u4ogts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286393/original/file-20190731-186792-1u4ogts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286393/original/file-20190731-186792-1u4ogts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286393/original/file-20190731-186792-1u4ogts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286393/original/file-20190731-186792-1u4ogts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286393/original/file-20190731-186792-1u4ogts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Steelmen not binmen’ – a protest in Corby.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lee Forster.</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Dirt and waste are infused with undesirable connotations, which can be deeply hurtful. To be connected with dirt is to lose respectability, and to lose respectability is to lose class status. Consequently, plans to transport waste into working-class towns like Corby could be especially harmful to those communities.</p>
<h2>Working-class stories</h2>
<p>There are plenty of examples from around the world which attest to the psychological harm of associating working-class people with dirt. <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/23258340-getting-by">Lisa McKenzie</a> – a sociologist and <a href="https://www.mdx.ac.uk/about-us/our-people/staff-directory/profile/mckenzie-lisa">lecturer</a> at Middlesex University – explains how “painful”, “difficult” and “upsetting” it was, as a teenager growing up on an English council estate, to learn that people thought of the working class as being dirty. </p>
<p>Many other writers from working-class backgrounds have documented similar experiences, from the work of British writer Lynsey Hanley in her books <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/912517.Estates">Estates</a> and <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=7KtpCwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false">Respectable</a>, to the moving biographies of French sociologist <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17895842-returning-to-reims">Didier Eribon</a> and French writer <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31574750-the-end-of-eddy">Édouard Louis</a>. Most recently the US president, Donald Trump, drew criticism for referring to the district of Baltimore as “disgusting, rodent and rat infested” – evoking a stereotype of impoverished and majority black areas which <a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/7/29/20746188/donald-trump-elijah-cummings-baltimore-rat-infested-racism">dates back to slavery</a> and the American Civil War. </p>
<p>The decision for Corby to receive huge amounts of waste might rest on that middle-class view of the poor as dirty. But even if decision-makers do not actively associate Corby or the working class with dirt, their failure to appreciate the symbolic harm of mainlining rubbish into disadvantaged communities is a concerning oversight. </p>
<h2>At home and abroad</h2>
<p>The plans to offload waste to Corby is but one example of the wealthy being chiefly responsible for environmental damage caused by consumption, while disadvantaged communities face the harmful consequences. The World Bank <a href="http://datatopics.worldbank.org/what-a-waste/trends_in_solid_waste_management.html">reports</a> that, “though they only account for 16% of the world’s population, high-income countries generate about 34%, or 683m tonnes, of the world’s waste”. The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/jul/10/100-fossil-fuel-companies-investors-responsible-71-global-emissions-cdp-study-climate-change">Carbon Majors Report</a> found that between 1988 and 2015, 100 companies have been responsible for 71% of global greenhouse gas emissions. </p>
<p>Indeed, rich nations such as Britain have treated poorer populations across the world as sites for waste disposal for many decades. Until January 2018, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-48444874">China</a> was the largest global receiver of waste. But concerns about pollution and contamination led the Chinese government to change policy and they no longer accept foreign imports of certain types of plastic. Since then, rich countries have been exporting waste to various disadvantaged communities in <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/environment-and-conservation/2018/11/where-does-your-plastic-waste-end">Asia</a> – including in Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia – with <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-46566795">devastating consequences</a>.</p>
<p>Now the lack of care for disadvantaged communities is happening here in the UK, as well as elsewhere. And as a result, inequality is on course to become more pronounced, visible and entrenched. Whether at home or abroad, this strategy does not work. </p>
<p>In the present day, when <a href="https://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/politics/northamptonshire-county-council-commits-to-2030-carbon-neutral-target-as-it-declares-climate-emergency-1-8971306">local governments</a> and <a href="https://www.climatechangenews.com/2019/06/24/four-countries-declared-climate-emergencies-give-billions-fossil-fuels/">states</a> are recognising the climate emergency, it is crucial to develop sustainable and ethical ways to manage waste. Instead of dumping the problem on disadvantaged communities, waste needs to be visible to those who are making it. Perhaps then governments would start to address the more pressing issue at hand: how to prevent waste in the first place.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121153/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roxana Willis' research is funded by The British Academy and University College, University of Oxford.</span></em></p>
From Orwell to Trump, the wealthy have a long tradition of stereotyping working-class communities as “dirty” – that has to stop.
Roxana Willis, Junior Research Fellow in Law and British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Criminology, University of Oxford
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/118665
2019-06-20T11:21:17Z
2019-06-20T11:21:17Z
Is burning trash a good way to handle it? Waste incineration in 5 charts
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279572/original/file-20190614-158936-12lzmsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Wheelabrator Waste to Energy Plant in Saugus, Massachusetts, has been burning trash to generate electricity since 1975.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wheelabrator_Waste-to-Energy_Plant,_Saugus_MA.jpg">Fletcher6/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Burning trash has a long history in the United States, and municipal solid waste incinerators have sparked resistance in many places. As an <a href="https://www.newschool.edu/public-engagement/ms-environmental-policy-sustainability-management-faculty/?id=4d6a-5535-4e6a-6b79">environmental justice scholar</a> who works directly with low-income and communities of color, I see incineration as a poor waste management option. </p>
<p>Although these plants generate electricity from the heat created by burning trash, their primary purpose is waste disposal. Emissions from burning waste worsen environmental inequalities, create financial risks for host communities and reduce incentives to adopt more sustainable waste practices. </p>
<p>I recently co-authored a <a href="https://tishmancenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/CR_GaiaReportFinal_05.21.pdf">report</a> that describes signs of decline in the U.S. waste incineration industry due to many factors. They include a volatile revenue model, aging plants, high operation and maintenance costs, and growing public interest in reducing waste, promoting environmental justice and combating climate change.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, 72 incinerators are still operating today in the U.S. Most of them – 58, or 80% – are sited in environmental justice communities, which we defined as areas where more than 25% of residents are low-income, people of color or both. Incinerators worsen cumulative impacts from multiple pollution sources on these overburdened neighborhoods. </p>
<h2>Environmental justice flashpoints</h2>
<p>Waste incinerators are heavily concentrated in northeast states and Florida – areas with high population densities and limited landfill space. Some of these states also provide favorable economic incentives, such as allowing incinerators to earn renewable energy credits for generating electricity.</p>
<p>In the past year environmental justice advocates have successfully shut down incinerators in Detroit, Michigan, and Commerce, California. The Detroit incinerator was built in the 1980s and received more than US$1 billion in public investment borne by local taxpayers. Groups such as <a href="https://www.ecocenter.org/breathe-free-detroit">Breathe Free Detroit</a> and <a href="http://zerowastedetroit.org/">Zero Waste Detroit</a> rallied residents to oppose the public financing and health burdens that the facility imposed on surrounding environmental justice communities. <a href="https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2019/03/27/detroit-renewable-power-incinerator/3289106002/">The plant closed in March 2019</a>. </p>
<p>The California plant closed in June 2018 after a yearlong campaign by two community-based organizations, <a href="http://eycej.org/">East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice</a> and <a href="https://valleyimprovementprojects.org/">Valley Improvement Projects</a>, to prevent incineration from qualifying for state renewable energy subsidies. The facility ultimately closed when a 30-year power purchase agreement with the local utility expired, leaving it <a href="https://www.wastedive.com/news/california-first-wte-facility-closes/529164/">without a sufficient revenue stream</a>. </p>
<p><div>Infographic currently not available</div></p>
<h2>Aging facilities</h2>
<p>Incineration plants’ average life expectancy is 30 years. Three-quarters of operating waste incinerators in the United States are at least 25 years old. </p>
<p>These facilities’ revenues come primarily from tipping fees that waste haulers pay to dump trash, and secondarily from generating electricity. These revenue streams are volatile and can undermine the industry’s financial stability. At least 31 incinerators have closed since 2000 due to issues such as insufficient revenue or inability to afford required upgrades. </p>
<p>Operations and maintenance costs typically increase as plants age and their performance decreases. Upgrades, such as installing new pollution control equipment, can cost tens of millions of dollars, and sometimes more than US$100 million. </p>
<p>These large capital expenditures represent risks for host communities, which often provide public financing through bonds or tax increases. Such measures are risky because the waste service and energy contracts that generate revenue are increasingly shorter term and vulnerable to fluctuating market and regulatory conditions. As plants age, their environmental performance may also degrade over time, posing increasing risks to the environment and public health.</p>
<p><iframe id="uM7zE" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/uM7zE/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>What incinerators burn</h2>
<p>The composition of municipal solid waste has changed over the past 50 years. Synthetic materials such as plastics have increased, while biogenic, compostable materials such as paper and yard trimmings have decreased. </p>
<p>Plastics are particularly problematic for waste handling because they are petroleum-based, nonbiogenic materials. They are difficult to decompose and release harmful pollutants such as <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/03/should-we-burn-plastic-waste/">dioxins</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2007.12.019">heavy metals</a> when they are incinerated. </p>
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<h2>Waste management trends</h2>
<p>Today, thanks to the evolution of waste handling options, a majority of the materials in municipal solid waste can be composted or recycled. This reduces impacts on the environment, including air, soil and water contamination and greenhouse gas emissions. As cities like <a href="https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/dsny/site/our-work/zero-waste">New York</a> and <a href="https://sfenvironment.org/striving-for-zero-waste">San Francisco</a> adopt zero-waste policies that create incentives for diverting waste from landfills or incinerators, burning trash will increasingly become obsolete. </p>
<p>Many U.S. <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-pledges-to-action-cities-need-to-show-their-climate-progress-with-hard-data-99200">cities</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-blazing-a-low-carbon-path-pay-off-for-california-72168">states</a> are adopting aggressive climate change and sustainability goals. Waste reduction and diversion will play a critical part in meeting these targets. The public is increasingly demanding more upstream solutions in the form of extended producer responsibility bills, plastic bans and less-toxic product redesign. There is also a growing movement for less-consumptive lifestyles that favors zero-waste goals. </p>
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<h2>Heavy polluters</h2>
<p>Incinerators release many air pollutants, including nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxides, particulate matter, lead, mercury, dioxins and furans. These substances are known to have <a href="https://www.who.int/airpollution/ambient/health-impacts/en/">serious public health effects</a>, from increased cancer risk to respiratory illness, cardiac disease and reproductive, developmental and neurological problems. According to recent figures from the waste industry, incinerator plants emit <a href="https://cen.acs.org/environment/sustainability/Should-plastics-source-energy/96/i38">more sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide per unit of electricity generated</a> than power plants burning natural gas.</p>
<p>Research on direct health impacts of waste incineration in the United States is limited, but a handful of studies from Asia and Europe, where waste incinerators are prevalent, offer some insights. For example, a 2013 study in Italy analyzed the occurrence of miscarriages in women aged 15-49 years residing near seven incinerators in northern Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region, and found that increased particulate emissions from the incinerators was associated with an <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/EDE.0b013e3182a712f1">increased risk of miscarriage</a>. </p>
<p>A single incinerator may burn anywhere from <a href="https://www.mass.gov/guides/municipal-waste-combustors">a few hundred tons</a> to <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/3056526/this-massive-waste-to-energy-plant-will-be-the-largest-in-the-world">several thousand tons</a> of waste per day. Smaller incinerators typically have lower absolute emissions but can emit more hazardous pollutants for each ton of waste they burn. Plant emissions also can vary widely based on the heterogeneous composition of municipal waste, the age and type of emissions control equipment, and how well the plant is operated and maintained over time. </p>
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<p>[ <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=thanksforreading">Thanks for reading! We can send you The Conversation’s stories every day in an informative email. Sign up today.</a></em> ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118665/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ana Baptista received funding from the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) which received a grant from the JPB Foundation for the preparation of the report "U.S. Municipal Solid Waste Incinerators: An Industry in Decline". She is affiliated with GAIA, the New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance and the Ironbound Community Corporation. </span></em></p>
Every year the US burns more than 34 million tons of garbage in incinerators. These plants are major pollution sources, and most are clustered in disadvantaged communities.
Ana Baptista, Assistant Professor of Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management, The New School
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/113306
2019-03-12T10:45:41Z
2019-03-12T10:45:41Z
Stemming the tide of trash: 5 essential reads on recycling
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263227/original/file-20190311-86699-1a266tk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Where does it go from here?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/caucasian-boy-girl-putting-clear-green-139546277">spwidoff/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A year after China upended global materials markets by <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-chinas-crackdown-on-foreign-garbage-force-wealthy-countries-to-recycle-more-of-their-own-waste-81440">banning imports of much solid waste</a>, the effects are still rippling around the globe. Many U.S. recyclers are awash in materials they formerly sent to China for processing. Some cities with few options are burning recyclables in incinerators. </p>
<p>What would it take to reduce U.S. waste management headaches? These five essential reads offer some insights.</p>
<h2>1. Embrace the circular economy</h2>
<p>Waste is inevitable when products are designed to be used and then thrown away. Clyde Eiríkur Hull, professor of management at Rochester Institute of Technology, offers an alternative: a circular economy in which products are used, then <a href="https://theconversation.com/trump-should-wage-a-war-on-waste-instead-of-battling-the-world-over-trade-100712">recycled and remanufactured into new products</a>.</p>
<p>Major U.S. companies, including GM, Caterpillar and Staples, are saving money through recycling and remanufacturing. But Hull says this could be greatly scaled up if the federal government required products to be designed with future reuse in mind and taxed goods that did not comply. </p>
<p>“In an entirely circular economy, the U.S. would most likely still import stuff from abroad, such as steel from China. But that steel would wind up being reused in American factories, employing tax-paying American workers to manufacture new goods,” he writes.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">China’s waste ban has created a glut in the U.S. and sent prices for scrap materials plunging.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>2. Get serious about recycling plastic</h2>
<p>Of all materials in the waste stream, plastics pose the biggest challenge. They are used in a myriad of consumer goods, including many single-use items such as straws and cutlery, and can take centuries to break down. Kate O'Neill, professor of global environmental policy at the University of California, Berkeley, compares plastic waste to J.R.R. Tolkien’s One Ring, which “can be permanently destroyed only through incineration at extremely high temperatures.”</p>
<p>O'Neill identifies a number of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-plastic-waste-crisis-is-an-opportunity-for-the-us-to-get-serious-about-recycling-at-home-93254">steps to boost plastic recycling</a> in the United States. They include better consumer education about sorting and disposal; less reliance on single-stream collection, which mixes plastics with other materials; more investment in scrap processing facilities; and steps to manage specific plastic products that are hard to recycle, such as 3D printer waste. </p>
<h2>3. Pursue plant-based plastics – and composting</h2>
<p>Conventional plastics are derived from fossil fuel, but they can also be <a href="https://theconversation.com/bio-based-plastics-can-reduce-waste-but-only-if-we-invest-in-both-making-and-getting-rid-of-them-98282">made from renewable biological compounds</a> that break down more easily, such as plant sugars. A key challenge with these products is making items that are strong enough to hold up during use but still biodegradable. </p>
<p>“A straw and cup that disintegrate halfway through your road trip are not much use at all,” observes Michigan State University biochemist Danny Ducat, whose lab is using photosynthetic bacteria to synthesize bioplastic feedstocks.</p>
<p>Bioplastics also require investments at the end of their life cycles, Ducat notes. Like other plant-based materials, such as food scraps, they will only degrade readily in composting facilities, where microbes break them down in the presence of oxygen. Buried in landfills, they will persist for decades or centuries, much like conventional plastics. They also are likely to persist if they end up in other cold places with little oxygen, such as the Arctic or deep ocean waters. </p>
<p>“This means that any breakthroughs in materials science need to be coupled with sustainable methods for bioplastic production and a well-oiled system to direct bioplastic goods into composting facilities,” Ducat writes.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Paper-based packaging is an alternative to plastic, especially for food products.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>4. Recycle more steel and aluminum</h2>
<p>Recycling is <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-recycling-more-steel-and-aluminum-could-slash-imports-without-a-trade-war-97766">much more developed for metals</a> than it is for plastics. In the United States, about 65 percent of old steel products and 40 to 65 percent of discarded aluminum products are recycled. But Daniel Cooper, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan, asserts that more could be done. </p>
<p>As Cooper explains, the United States exports or throws away a lot of cheap scrap metal, and imports expensive new metal. “As an already industrialized country, the U.S. needs little new metal to meet domestic demand,” he points out. More federal support for metals recycling, he asserts, could slash new steel and aluminum imports. </p>
<p>In addition to saving the money and resources that go into producing new metals, such a policy would cost Americans much less than the tariffs President Donald Trump has imposed on imported steel and aluminum.</p>
<h2>5. Reconsider waste incineration</h2>
<p>Is burning trash instead of recycling it such a bad thing? Bucknell University economist Thomas Kinnaman thinks it’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/chinas-garbage-ban-upends-us-recycling-is-it-time-to-reconsider-incineration-98206">worth a new look</a>.</p>
<p>As Kinnaman acknowledges, waste incineration is much less popular in the United States than in other regions, including Japan and western Europe. Early U.S. waste combustion plants generated high levels of air pollutants, including hazardous substances such as dioxins, and often were sited in low-income and minority communities.</p>
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<p>But new incinerators burn waste more thoroughly and trap pollutants more effectively. “As a result, dioxin emissions from incinerators with modern abatement technologies are currently near zero. Modern incinerators also include processes to generate electricity, heat water for district heating services, recycle the metals found in the ashes and build tiles from the remaining slag,” Kinnaman states.</p>
<p>Incineration still has clear disadvantages. It’s more expensive than landfilling, and Kinnaman sees some evidence that once countries burn more than 40 percent of their waste, it starts to replace recycling. Nonetheless, he contends, expanding its use in the United States – which currently burns less than 13 percent of its solid waste – could be more socially responsible than shipping plastic scrap to developing countries that are ill-equipped to dispose of it.</p>
<p><em>Editor’s note: This is a roundup of previously published stories.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/113306/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
China, which once processed much of the world’s scrap, has slashed imports of “foreign garbage.” What can the US do to step up recycling at home?
Jennifer Weeks, Senior Environment + Cities Editor, The Conversation
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/93254
2018-08-17T10:16:17Z
2018-08-17T10:16:17Z
The plastic waste crisis is an opportunity for the US to get serious about recycling at home
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231151/original/file-20180808-191038-zep5v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Conveyors carry mixed plastic into a device that will shred recycle them at a plastics recycling plant in Vernon, California. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Plastic-Bag-Ban/da88cb672cdb403c8b6c243624d86780/42/0">AP Photo/Reed Saxon,File</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A global plastic waste crisis is building, with major implications for health and the environment. Under its so-called “National Sword” policy, China has <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-chinas-crackdown-on-foreign-garbage-force-wealthy-countries-to-recycle-more-of-their-own-waste-81440">sharply reduced imports of foreign scrap materials</a>. As a result, piles of plastic waste are building up in ports and recycling facilities across the United States. </p>
<p>In response, support is growing <a href="http://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/25496/singleUsePlastic_sustainability.pdf?sequence=1&amp;isAllowed=y">nationally and worldwide</a> for banning or restricting single-use consumer plastics, such as <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2018/02/23/news/plastic-straws-bans-companies/index.html">straws</a> and <a href="https://www-statista-com.libproxy.berkeley.edu/chart/14120/the-countries-banning-plastic-bags/">grocery bags</a>. These efforts are also spurred by chilling findings about how micro-plastics travel through oceans and waterways and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2018.02.016">up the food chain</a>. </p>
<p>I have <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=YY6NEBQAAAAJ&hl=en">studied global trade in hazardous wastes</a> for many years and am currently completing a book on the global politics of waste. In my view, today’s unprecedented level of public concern is an opportunity to innovate. There is growing interest in improving plastic recycling in the United States. This means getting consumers to clean and sort recyclables, investing in better technologies for sorting and reusing waste plastics, and creating incentives for producers to buy and use recycled plastic.</p>
<p>Critiques of recycling are not <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1996/06/30/magazine/recycling-is-garbage.html">new</a>, and critiques of recycling plastic are <a href="http://www.no-burn.org/recyclingisnotenough/">many</a>, but I still believe it makes sense to expand, not abandon, the system. This will require large-scale investment and, in the long term, implementing upstream policies, including product bans.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Plastic litter on California beaches has decreased since the state banned single-use plastic bags in 2016.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Easy to use, hard to destroy</h2>
<p>Plastics make products lighter, cheaper, easier to assemble and more disposable. They also generate waste, both at the start of their life cycles – the petrochemicals industry is a major source of pollution and greenhouse gas emissions – and after disposal. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://plastics.americanchemistry.com/Plastics-Statistics/ACC-PIPS-2017-Major-Market-Pie-Chart.pdf">biggest domestic use</a> by far for plastic resin is packaging (34 percent in 2017), followed by consumer and institutional goods (20 percent) and construction (17 percent). Many products’ useful lives can be measured in minutes. Others, especially engineered and industrial plastics, have a longer life – up to 35 years for building and construction products. </p>
<p>After disposal, plastic products take anywhere from <a href="https://www.des.nh.gov/organization/divisions/water/wmb/coastal/trash/documents/marine_debris.pdf">five to 600 years</a> to break down. Many degrade into micro-plastic fragments that effectively last forever. Rather like J.R.R. Tolkien’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings">One Ring</a>, plastics can be permanently destroyed only through incineration at extremely high temperatures. </p>
<h2>Why the United States recycles so little plastic</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/plastics-material-specific-data">Less than 10 percent</a> of discarded plastics entered the recycling stream in the United States in 2015, compared with <a href="https://www.plasticseurope.org/application/files/5715/1717/4180/Plastics_the_facts_2017_FINAL_for_website_one_page.pdf">39.1 percent</a> in the European Union and <a href="http://www.recyclingtoday.com/article/china-plastic-recycling-rate-decline/">22 percent</a> in China. Another 15 percent of U.S. plastic waste is burned in waste-to-energy facilities. The remaining 75 percent goes to landfills. These figures do not include any dumping or illegal disposal. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231154/original/file-20180808-142251-11bumsz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231154/original/file-20180808-142251-11bumsz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231154/original/file-20180808-142251-11bumsz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231154/original/file-20180808-142251-11bumsz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231154/original/file-20180808-142251-11bumsz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231154/original/file-20180808-142251-11bumsz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1429&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231154/original/file-20180808-142251-11bumsz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231154/original/file-20180808-142251-11bumsz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1429&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<p>Even the most easily recyclable plastics have a lengthy <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/12/what-actually-happens-to-a-recycled-plastic-bottle/418326/">journey</a> from the recycling bin to their final destinations. Many barriers have become painfully apparent since China, which until recently accepted half of all U.S. plastic scrap, implemented its crackdown on March 1, 2018. </p>
<p>First, there are many different types of plastics. Of the seven resin identification codes stamped on the bottom of plastic containers, only 1’s and 2’s are easily recyclable. Public education campaigns have lagged, particularly with respect to cleaning and preparing plastics for recycling. Getting consumers to commit to more stringent systems is critical. But scolding <a href="http://www.rachellaudan.com/2017/03/im-a-happy-food-waster.html">can backfire</a>, as experience with food waste shows. </p>
<p>Another factor is U.S. reliance on <a href="https://www.thebalancesmb.com/single-and-dual-stream-recycling-2877722">single-stream recycling systems</a>, in which all recyclables are placed in the same receptacle. This approach is easier for consumers but produces a mixed stream of materials that is difficult and expensive to sort and clean at recycling facilities. </p>
<p>The United States currently has <a href="https://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Solid-Waste-Final.pdf">633 materials recycling facilities</a>, which can clean, sort and bale a total of 100,000 tons of recyclables per day. Today they are under growing pressure as scrap piles up. Even before China’s restrictions went into effect, materials recycling facilities operators threw out <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/12/what-actually-happens-to-a-recycled-plastic-bottle/418326/">around half</a> of what they received because of contamination. Most are not equipped to meet China’s stringent new contamination standards, and their <a href="https://www.wastedive.com/news/china-contamination-standard-MRFs/519659/">processing rates have slowed</a> – but garbage production rates have not. </p>
<p>Finally, since China was the U.S. plastic scrap market’s main buyer, its ban has eliminated a key revenue stream for municipal governments. As a result, some waste collection agencies are <a href="https://www.wastedive.com/news/china-ban-prompts-oregon-county-to-suspend-recycling-program/524447/">suspending curbside pickup</a>, while others are raising prices. All <a href="https://www.wastedive.com/news/what-chinese-import-policies-mean-for-all-50-states/510751/">50 states</a> have been affected to some extent.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231156/original/file-20180808-191038-1x9ef5l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231156/original/file-20180808-191038-1x9ef5l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231156/original/file-20180808-191038-1x9ef5l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231156/original/file-20180808-191038-1x9ef5l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231156/original/file-20180808-191038-1x9ef5l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231156/original/file-20180808-191038-1x9ef5l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231156/original/file-20180808-191038-1x9ef5l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231156/original/file-20180808-191038-1x9ef5l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Over 70 percent of U.S. plastic waste goes to landfills.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/plastics-material-specific-data">USEPA</a></span>
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<h2>No silver bullets</h2>
<p>Numerous public and private entities are working to find a more viable solution for plastics recycling. They include plastics <a href="https://www.americanchemistry.com/Media/PressReleasesTranscripts/ACC-news-releases/Americas-Plastics-Makers-Respond-to-G7-Charter-Aimed-at-Cleaner-Oceans.html">producers</a> and <a href="http://www.isri.org/advocacy-compliance/china">recyclers</a>, corporations such as <a href="https://www.coca-colacompany.com/learn-more-about-sustainable-packaging">Coca-Cola</a>, <a href="https://serc.berkeley.edu/zero-waste/">colleges and universities</a>, <a href="http://www.closedlooppartners.com/">foundations</a>, <a href="https://www.unenvironment.org/interactive/beat-plastic-pollution/">international organizations</a>, <a href="http://www.no-burn.org/">advocacy groups</a> and <a href="http://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/zerowaste/">state governments</a>.</p>
<p>Upgrading materials recycling facilities and expanding domestic markets for plastic scrap is an obvious priority but will require large-scale investments. Increasing waste-to-energy incineration is another option. <a href="https://sweden.se/nature/the-swedish-recycling-revolution/">Sweden</a> relies on this approach to maintain its zero waste model. </p>
<p>But incineration is deeply controversial in the United States, where it has <a href="https://www-statista-com.libproxy.berkeley.edu/statistics/499736/waste-to-energy-recovery-facilities-in-the-us/">declined</a> since 2001, partly due to strong opposition from host communities. Zero-waste and anti-incineration advocates have <a href="https://theconversation.com/garbage-in-garbage-out-incinerating-trash-is-not-an-effective-way-to-protect-the-climate-or-reduce-waste-84182">heavily criticized</a> initiatives such as the <a href="http://www.hefty.com/hefty-energybag/hefty-energybag-program/">Hefty EnergyBag Program</a>, a recent pilot initiative in Omaha, Nebraska to divert plastics to energy production. But small companies like Salt Lake City-based <a href="http://www.renewlogy.com">Renewlogy</a> are working to develop newer, cleaner ways to convert plastics to energy.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"918913038895534081"}"></div></p>
<p>Efforts to cut plastic use in the United States and other wealthy countries are <a href="http://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/25496/singleUsePlastic_sustainability.pdf?sequence=1&amp;isAllowed=y">focusing on single-use products</a>. Initiatives such as <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2018/07/news-how-plastic-straw-bans-work/">plastic straw</a> and <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/over-60-countries-introduced-bans-fees-single-use-plastic-waste/">bag bans</a> build awareness, but may not significantly reduce the problem of plastic trash by themselves. For example, plastic straws account for only <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-06-07/plastic-straws-aren-t-the-problem">0.03 percent</a> of the plastic that is likely to enter the oceans in any given year. </p>
<p>Industry is starting to <a href="https://www.salon.com/2018/05/24/as-plastic-straw-bans-become-mainstream-some-fear-pushback-from-corporations/">push back</a>, with corporations like <a href="https://www.salon.com/2018/05/24/as-plastic-straw-bans-become-mainstream-some-fear-pushback-from-corporations/">McDonald’s</a> resisting straw bans. Some U.S. states have passed measures <a href="https://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/news/2016/03/14/arizona-legislature-approves-ban-on-plastic-bag.html">forbidding plastic bag restrictions</a>.</p>
<p>To stem ocean plastic pollution, <a href="https://www.wastedive.com/news/closed-loop-partners-southeast-asia-ocean-plastics-initiative/518489/">better waste management on land</a> is critical, including steps to combat illegal dumping and manage hard-to-recycle plastics. Examples include <a href="https://phys.org/news/2016-06-recycle-polycarbonates-bpa-leaching.html">preventing BPA leaching from discarded products</a>, dechlorinating <a href="https://www.vinylplus.eu/uploads/Modules/Documents/2015-04-20-pvc-recycling-brochure---english.pdf">polyvinyl chloride</a> products, on-site <a href="http://news.berkeley.edu/2017/02/15/3d-printer-filament-reclamation-project/">recycling of 3D printer waste</a>, and making <a href="http://purecycletech.com/">virgin-quality plastic</a> out of used polypropylene.</p>
<p>The European Union is developing a <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/environment/circular-economy/index_en.htm">circular economy platform</a> that contains a multi-part strategy to increase plastics recycling and control waste. It includes making all plastic packaging recyclable by 2030 and reducing leakage of plastic products into the environment. The United States is unlikely to adopt such sweeping policies at the national level. But for cities and states, especially those where support for environmental protection is strong, it could be a more attainable vision.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93254/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kate O'Neill does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Since China stopped importing ‘foreign garbage’ in March 2018, scrap – especially plastic – has built up in the US. Will this shock trigger long-overdue investments in plastic recycling here?
Kate O'Neill, Associate Professor, Global Environmental Politics, University of California, Berkeley
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/84182
2018-02-27T11:30:15Z
2018-02-27T11:30:15Z
Garbage in, garbage out: Incinerating trash is not an effective way to protect the climate or reduce waste
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207873/original/file-20180226-140178-16f8pm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A trash truck discharges solid waste at the South East Reserve Recovery Facility's refuse storage pit in Long Beach, California, August 24, 2010.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Waste-to-Energy/ec462c97400846e2bd9fa3df083ebd1b/5/0">AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>U.S. cities have been burning municipal solid waste <a href="https://archive.epa.gov/epawaste/nonhaz/municipal/web/html/basic.html">since the 1880s</a>. For the first century, it was a way to get rid of trash. Today advocates have rebranded it as an environmentally friendly energy source.</p>
<p>Most incinerators operating today use the heat from burning trash to produce steam that can generate electricity. These systems are sometimes referred to as <a href="https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=25732">“waste-to-energy”</a> plants. </p>
<p>Communities and environmental groups have long <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/11/us/garbage-incinerators-make-comeback-kindling-both-garbage-and-debate.html">opposed the siting of these facilities</a>, arguing that they are serious polluters and undermine recycling. Now the industry is promoting a new process called co-incineration or co-firing. Operators burn waste alongside traditional fossil fuels like coal in facilities such as cement kilns, coal-fired power plants and industrial boilers. </p>
<p>I study environmental justice and zero-waste solutions and contributed to a <a href="http://www.no-burn.org/wp-content/uploads/Businesses-and-cities-at-risk.pdf">recent report</a> about the health and environmental impacts of co-incineration. Since that time, the Trump administration’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/10/us/politics/pollution-epa-regulations.html">lenient approach</a> to enforcing environmental laws against polluters – <a href="http://www.dispatch.com/news/20171211/ohio-town-solid-for-trump-now-frets-over-epa-slowdown">including incinerators</a> – has deepened my concern. I’ve come to the conclusion that burning waste is an unjust and unsustainable strategy, and new attempts to package incineration as renewable energy are misguided.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207885/original/file-20180226-140200-9ytiht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207885/original/file-20180226-140200-9ytiht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207885/original/file-20180226-140200-9ytiht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207885/original/file-20180226-140200-9ytiht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207885/original/file-20180226-140200-9ytiht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207885/original/file-20180226-140200-9ytiht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207885/original/file-20180226-140200-9ytiht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207885/original/file-20180226-140200-9ytiht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">U.S. municipal solid waste generation, 1960-2013.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://archive.epa.gov/epawaste/nonhaz/municipal/web/html/">USEPA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Incineration industry capitalizes on renewable energy</h2>
<p>Currently there are <a href="https://www.epa.gov/smm/energy-recovery-combustion-municipal-solid-waste-msw">86 incinerators across 25 states</a> burning about <a href="https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=25732">29 million tons of garbage annually</a> – about 12 percent of the total U.S. waste stream. They produced <a href="https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=25732">about 0.4 percent of total U.S. electricity generation in 2015</a> – a minuscule share.</p>
<p>Classifying incineration as renewable energy creates new revenue streams for the industry because operators can take advantage of programs designed to promote clean power. More importantly, it gives them environmental credibility. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207869/original/file-20180226-140204-fhc4zb.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207869/original/file-20180226-140204-fhc4zb.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207869/original/file-20180226-140204-fhc4zb.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207869/original/file-20180226-140204-fhc4zb.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207869/original/file-20180226-140204-fhc4zb.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207869/original/file-20180226-140204-fhc4zb.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207869/original/file-20180226-140204-fhc4zb.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207869/original/file-20180226-140204-fhc4zb.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>In <a href="http://programs.dsireusa.org/system/program?type=38&">23 states and territories</a>, waste incineration is included in renewable portfolio standards – rules that require utilities to produce specific fractions of their power from qualifying renewable fuels. The Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan – which the Trump administration has pledged to replace – <a href="http://scholarship.law.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1675&context=wmelpr">allowed states to classify waste incineration</a> and co-incineration as carbon-neutral forms of energy production. </p>
<p>Another EPA policy, the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/rcra/final-rule-identification-non-hazardous-secondary-materials-are-solid-waste">Non-Hazardous Secondary Materials rule</a>, was amended in 2013 to redefine waste so that municipal solid waste can now be processed to become “non-waste fuel products.” These renamed wastes can be burned in facilities such as boilers that are subject to <a href="https://www.natlawreview.com/article/your-combustion-unit-boiler-or-incinerator-epa-finalizes-nhsm-non-hazardous-secondar">less-stringent environmental standards than solid waste incinerators</a>. This is good news for an industry trying to <a href="http://biomassmagazine.com/articles/13135/playing-by-the-nonwaste-fuels-rules">monetize waste materials such as railroad crossties</a> by treating them as fuel. </p>
<h2>Why waste incineration is not sustainable</h2>
<p>Many environmental advocates in the <a href="https://earthjustice.org/news/press/2014/epa-faces-court-challenge-over-solid-waste-loophole">United States</a> and <a href="https://www.zerowasteeurope.eu/2014/03/when-waste-ends-up-in-acement-kiln/">Europe</a> are alarmed over government approval of increasingly diverse waste fuels, along with relaxed oversight of the incineration industry. </p>
<p>Although municipal solid waste combustion is <a href="https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPDF.cgi?Dockey=2000FA6U.pdf">regulated under the Clean Air Act</a>, host communities are concerned about potential <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK233619/">health impacts</a>. Emissions typically associated with incineration include particulate matter, lead, mercury and dioxins. </p>
<p>In 2011 the New York Department of Environmental Conservation found that although facilities burning waste in New York complied with existing law, they released <a href="http://documents.dps.ny.gov/public/Common/ViewDoc.aspx?DocRefId=%7BDEEA097E-A9A6-4E53-898C-0BC2F4C60CC4%7D">up to 14 times more mercury, twice as much lead and four times as much cadmium per unit of energy than coal plants</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckp216">Disproportionate siting</a> of incinerators and waste facilities in communities of color and low-income communities was a key driver for the emergence of the environmental justice movement. In 1985 there were <a href="http://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-01663-4.html">200 proposed or existing incinerators</a> online, but by 2015 fewer than 85 plants remained. Many U.S. communities effectively organized to defeat proposed plants, but poor, marginalized and less-organized <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09644010903345587">communities remained vulnerable</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207881/original/file-20180226-122025-1hp8p7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207881/original/file-20180226-122025-1hp8p7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207881/original/file-20180226-122025-1hp8p7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207881/original/file-20180226-122025-1hp8p7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207881/original/file-20180226-122025-1hp8p7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207881/original/file-20180226-122025-1hp8p7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207881/original/file-20180226-122025-1hp8p7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207881/original/file-20180226-122025-1hp8p7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rally opposing a proposed waste-to-energy plant in Baltimore, Maryland, Dec. 18, 2013.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/jsZhg6">United Workers</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Now some companies are turning to co-incineration rather than building new plants. This move sidesteps <a href="https://archive.epa.gov/epawaste/nonhaz/municipal/web/html/basic.html">substantial upfront costs</a> and risky financial arrangements, which have created debt problems for host municipalities such as <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/municipal-folly-bankrupts-a-state-capital/">Harrisburg, Pennsylvania</a>. </p>
<p>Co-incineration offers <a href="http://biomassmagazine.com/articles/11824/a-solid-approach-to-msw-fuel">new markets for waste-derived fuels</a> using existing infrastructure. It is hard to measure how many facilities are currently using co-incineration, since EPA’s Non-Hazardous Secondary Materials rule does not require them to report it. But as one data point, two affiliated building material companies, Systech and Geocycle, are co-processing waste in <a href="https://www.go2systech.com/systech-facility-location-network-in-north-america/">22 cement kilns in the United States and Canada</a>. </p>
<h2>Co-incineration is not clean</h2>
<p>As an example of concerns over co-incineration, consider the <a href="http://www.hefty.com/whats-new/articles/hefty-energy-bag-program/">Hefty Energy Bag</a> program, which is sponsored by Dow Chemical Company and promoted by the nonprofit group <a href="https://www.kab.org/home">Keep America Beautiful</a>. This project offers grants to municipalities to participate in a curbside pilot program that collects hard-to-recycle plastics for energy production. </p>
<p>Currently this initiative is collecting plastics in Omaha, Nebraska, and mostly co-incinerating them at the <a href="http://www.centralplainscement.com">Sugar Creek cement kiln</a> in Missouri. In 2010, the owner of this plant and 12 others <a href="https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/lafarge-north-america-inc-clean-air-act-settlement">settled with EPA</a> for violating the Clean Air Act and other air pollution regulations, paying a US$5 million fine and agreeing to install new pollution controls. Although this is just one example, it indicates that concerns over air quality impacts from co-incineration are real.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/w28l9zeMMhc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Promotional video for the Hefty Energy Bag program.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Waste incineration deflects attention from more sustainable solutions, such as redesigning products for recyclability or eliminating toxic, hard-to-recycle plastics. Currently only <a href="https://archive.epa.gov/epawaste/nonhaz/municipal/web/html/">about one-third</a> of municipal solid waste is recycled in the United States. Rates for some types of plastics are even lower.</p>
<p>Dow’s partnership with Keep America Beautiful is particularly problematic becomes it takes advantage of local municipalities and residents who want to promote zero-waste, climate-friendly policies. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, burning municipal solid waste emits <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-07/documents/emission-factors_2014.pdf">nearly as much carbon per unit of energy as coal, and almost twice as much as natural gas</a>.</p>
<p>As the Trump administration reverses or abandons <a href="https://theconversation.com/trump-slams-brakes-on-obamas-climate-plan-but-theres-still-a-long-road-ahead-75252">national</a> and <a href="https://www.epa.gov/speeches/administrator-scott-pruitt-speech-paris-accord-prepared">international</a> policies to address climate change, many Americans are looking to local and state governments and the private sector to lead on this issue. Many <a href="http://www.c40.org">cities</a> and states are committing to ambitious <a href="http://www.waste360.com/waste-reduction/10-major-us-cities-zero-waste-goals">zero-waste</a> and <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/compass/2017/09/milestone-150-mayors-endorse-100-clean-energy">renewable energy</a> targets. </p>
<p>These policies can drive innovations in a greening economy, but they can also provide perverse incentives to greenwash and repackage old solutions in new ways. In my view, incineration is a false solution to climate change that diverts precious resources, time and attention from more systemic solutions, such as waste reduction and real renewable fuels like solar and wind. Whether it’s an incinerator, cement kiln or coal plant, if you put garbage into a system, you get garbage out.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84182/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ana Baptista is a board member of the non profit organization, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA). She is affiliated with GAIA. </span></em></p>
Most Americans don’t want incinerators in their neighborhoods, so waste management companies are burning trash in other facilities such as cement kilns. Is this a sustainable way to deal with garbage?
Ana Baptista, Assistant Professor of Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management, The New School
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.