Which is Worse: Landfill or Incinerator?
Environmentalists have long understood that, as bad as landfills are, trash incineration (and landfilling the toxic ash) is even worse. Currently, we burn Montgomery County’s trash here in Dickerson and send toxic ash by rail to landfills in Virginia. For every 100 tons burned, 30 tons of ash goes to landfill and the other 70 tons become air pollution released in our community. Sugarloaf Citizens Association Has been advocating for a third path, which replaces incineration by reducing, reusing, recycling and composting, then stabilizing the residuals so that the waste we landfill in Virginia isn’t as toxic, voluminous, or likely to produce gas and odors. The industry’s own data affirm that incineration is more expensive than landfilling. The Energy Information Administration has published data showing that incineration is the most expensive source of energy. EPA data, as well as state comparisons in MD and NY, shows that incineration is much more polluting than coal, even with the extra pollution controls they use. However, the main question persists... is incineration really worse for the environment than direct landfilling? The perception that landfills are worse has kept our county officials thinking that we dare not stop incinerating when the contract ends on 4/1/2021 unless we reach a certain level in the county’s waste reduction, recycling and composting efforts. This is rubbish (so to speak). In fact, it’s better to switch to direct landfilling as soon as possible, regardless of our level of recycling and composting, because incineration is indeed far worse than landfills for our health and our environment. In a 2017 life cycle analysis conducted to evaluate Washington, DC’s waste options, ten different environmental measures were examined comparing Covanta’s incinerator in Lorton, VA to trucking waste to landfills that are 2-4 times as far from DC. On a majority of the measures evaluated, incineration turned out to be worse than landfilling -worse when it comes to global warming pollution, and pollution from nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, toxic chemical releases, acid gases, and smog.
Furthermore, burning trash creates new toxic chemicals and makes existing toxins in products more available to leach out when rainwater contacts ash in a landfill. Since it's the toxicity, not the volume, of waste that harms health, it's better to send stabilized unburned trash than incinerator ash to landfill.
Best of all, of course, is a truly Zero Waste plan that focuses on reduction, reuse, recycling and composting. This is what we are fighting for, but in the meantime, the sooner we as a county can get out of that contract with Covanta and stop burning our trash, the better. As we work towards Zero Waste, there are existing well-operated landfills in Virginia that are open for business, have plenty of space and are accessible by rail from the Shady Grove Transfer Station. We think this is a no brainer. We hope you do too. Please feel free to reach out to us if you’d like more information on this critical issue.
Lauren Greenberger
Sugarloaf Citizens Association, Inc. Linden Farm 20900 Martinsburg Road P.O. Box 218 Dickerson, MD 20842 301-349-4889 info@sugarloafcitizens.org
