"No quick fix"

Incineration is too expensive and also dangerous to health and environment

By Colleen Cooney

Colleen Cooney is a retired elementary school teacher from Orillia, Ontario who learned a lot about the subject in 1990 when Toronto planned on building an incinerator in her town. "At first, [we] thought it might be a good idea," she says. "But when we looked closely at it, listened to scientists and others on both sides of the issue, we realized that burning or landfilling waste was not good for us, the environment or for future generations."

  Larry, it's a good thing you don't believe the scare-mongering over waste disposal! You are in good company. We as intelligent people are well able to solve our problems in ways which respect our neighbours and those who will live on this planet after we are gone.
  In the late 1980s the people in the Orillia area were awakened by the threat of becoming a dumping ground for Toronto s garbage. We knew we were better than that.
  First, Toronto planned on using the quarry just outside Orillia. But we knew that our ground water would probably become contaminated and we didn't need all that extra truck traffic. Then in 1990 Toronto planned on building a 3000 tonne per day incinerator in the City of Orillia. That really awakened the community. We found out that the emissions from the incinerator would present a serious threat not only to our environment and to our economy but to our health as well.
  In 1990 the Physicians of Orillia studied the effects of exposure to the emissions from the incineration of garbage. Their report, which exposed the health hazards of the incineration process, recommended that the incinerator proposal in Orillia be turned down because of the physicians concern for the patients under their care.
  Since that time the citizens of Orillia have greatly reduced the amount of waste. Thanks to Toronto there is a greater understanding among many that we all live on the same planet and we are all interconnected and interdependent. We depend on healthy life support systems for a healthy population as well as a healthy economy. There is no "away".
  Today in Orillia Ontario waste reduction has been great - simply by increasing composting and recycling and not buying what would become wasted. The City of Orillia initiated a very successful garbage bag tag programme - each household was allowed 52 tags for garbage bags per year. Extra tags could be purchased. It works! I personally know of a family of six which has saved two hundred of these tags - just not enough wasted materials!
  Larry - there is no quick fix. Incineration may look quick at first glance, and it may look like a good solution. But if we look a little deeper and look at facts we may find we can be more creative. I agree that landfills are not a good way to deal with garbage either - they are polluting to the air, land and water, too - our life support systems. Incineration does not mean the end of landfills - these are needed for the toxic ash which forms in the burning process.
  The big problem is if we continue to think of all that garbage in Toronto as one big problem. The problem in reality is the mixing and dumping of all wasted items together. Many believe that s too back-ended a way of looking at the issue. We must envision a better world for our children and future generations. The solution lies in each of taking responsibility for not making so much waste. As Garrett Hardin has written in "Filters Against Folly" - Calling a product waste inhibits creative thought. Lateral thinking. If, when we shop, we buy only what we need which can be reused, recycled or composted, we will have very little "waste" left over. And we do need to watch that packaging.
  There are many communities throughout the world, and indeed in Ontario, which are much more efficient in reducing waste than is Toronto. Within the last twenty years many communities have been threatened by Toronto s garbage. This has been a catalyst for waking those communities up! In the 1980s the quarries in the Georgetown area in Halton Hills were targets for the garbage from Toronto. In Georgetown Ontario there is a large reuse centre called "Wastewise" which acts as a giant flea market. Citizens donate reusable items (clothes, books, lamps, furniture etc.) instead of dumping them in the garbage. These are then available at very low cost for others who would like to buy them. Wastewise can be contacted at 905 873 8122.
  In other parts of the world, too, people are taking more care of the planet. In Canberra Australia a strategy for improving current waste management practices which will provide opportunities to develop new and innovative businesses with significant employment potential has been developed. Their vision is "NO WASTE BY 2010". There is now a Zero Waste Network developing all over the world. An excellent video "Zero Waste: Idealistic Dream or Realistic Goal?" is available for $10 from GG Video 82 Judson Street Canton NY 13617. Leading practitioners are advocates of zero waste - this is the goal. It may not be 100% achievable in the near future - but the goal of zero waste is important. That is what we strive for - for a better planet. There is hope!
  So what s wrong with incineration? Many things! Let s look at economics, the environment and health.

Economics
  Incineration has been found to be the most expensive way of dealing with waste. In 1992, the Comptroller s Office of New York City investigated the economics of incineration for that city. The report of that study - the publication of a book entitled "Burn, Baby, Burn: How to Dispose of Garbage by Polluting Land, Sea and Air at Enormous Cost". The title says it all, don t you think! The Wall Street Journal, too, has reported that incineration is a very expensive way of dealing with waste.
  The Centre for the Biology of the Natural Systems, Queen s University in New York did a cost analysis of waste disposal and recycling and composting. This report has been presented to the International Joint Commission of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement between Canada and the United States. It was discovered that if all the incinerators surrounding the Great Lakes in Canada and the U.S. were shut down, all debts paid off and intensive recycling developed that in the first year the net direct financial impact would be US$ 536 million and US$ 594 in the second year. The net employment impact 24,600 jobs the first year and 26,950 in the second. How does that sound? CBNS can be reached at www.qc.edu/CBNS.

Health
  Many believe that no risk is acceptable when alternatives are available. Unborn babies and children and the most vulnerable to these toxic emissions.
  The emissions from the stack of an incinerator include:

[ Front Page ]