We believe that choosing the first option will create more problems than it solves. As you will learn:
- The environmental community believes that incinerating garbage and landfilling a mixture of ash and garbage creates a potentially significant environmental problem.
- These facilities carry extremely high price tags to build and operate – on the order of several hundred million dollars. The estimated cost to expand the county incinerator is at least $160 million.
- According to the County’s own Solid Waste Consulting Engineer, the residential disposal rate to pay for expanding the incinerator and to retire the debt on the existing facility will climb from $62 to $163 per household.
- Environmental watchdog groups including Greenpeace and the Sierra Club say incineration is among the worst options because:
- Incinerator ash can be toxic with concentrated amounts of heavy metals and dioxin; in fact, entirely new chemicals can be formed during the incineration process.
- Incinerators emit a wide range of pollutants in their stack gases that can travel great distances on air and ocean currents, ending up on the ground or in surface waters.
- Learn more about how garbage incinerators pollute our air:
- Greenpeace-stance of environmental organization Greenpeace on garbage incinerators
- Sierra Club-stance of the Sierra Club on municipal waste management
- www.no-burn.org - The Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, an international alliance of individuals, community-based organizations, and academics that promote sustainable waste prevention and discard management practices
- Click here to read a letter to the Pasco County Board of County Commissioners from Dr. Dwight Adams regarding the environmental benefits of an organic composting facility compared to an expansion of the garbage incinerator
- Click here to read an article written by Dr. Dwight Adams, Professor Emeritus of Physics, University of Florida , on the benefits of recycling and the drawbacks of incineration.
© 2007 Angelo's Recycled Materials
