Incineration

New report from GAIA

'Resources up in flames: The Economic Pitfalls of Incineration versus a Zero Waste Approach in the Global South'

 is a 75-page report, supported by more than 100 footnotes. It contains hard-hitting facts, model programs, and failed incinerator examples.

The first half of the report is devoted to the economic problems posed by incinerators and includes a section on how to evaluate a planned incinerator. The second half focuses on non-burn alternatives readily available, and concludes with a 10-step plan for getting starting on the path toward zero waste at the local level.

The report is available as a PDF file on GAIA’s web site, located at http://www.no-burn.org-burn.org. It is being translated into more than a dozen languages.

Incineration

Incineration refers to the combustion of waste materials, resulting in ash residues and air emissions. New Zealand is currently free of municipal solid waste incineration.

The following information is taken from the Zero Waste Trust’s report ’Wasted Opportunities - A Closer Look at Landfilling & Incineration’.

Impacts of incineration include:

Flow control

• Incinerators require large capital investment and show little economic return. 
• To maintain optimal combustion they also need a constant supply of waste materials.
  This often results in the creation of long-term contractual agreements with local authorities (guaranteeing certain tonnages of waste per year to the incinerator) and destroys incentives to minimise waste or financially support resource recovery programmes.
• They do not complement recycling programmes because they require materials with high calorific value (such as paper, cardboard & plastics).

Ongoing landfill requirement

• Landfills are still needed to dispose of the bottom ash and fly ash which are deemed to be highly toxic and therefore must be disposed of in costly hazardous materials landfills.

Employment 

• Incinerators are operated by a relatively small number of staff and the presence of an incinerator in a region does not attract other industries to the area.
• Reuse and recycling initiatives provide more than 10 times as many jobs as incineration for a given quantity of material processed.

Human health

• The incineration of mixed solid waste leads to emissions of heavy metals, dioxins and other volatile organic compounds that are released into the atmosphere.
• Many studies have shown that some of these compounds have been identified as a cause of cancer.
• Dioxins are the most toxic man-made substances known to man. The predominant source is from products such as PVC plastic (containing chlorine). This substance can persist for decades in the environment without breaking down into less harmful copmsunds and accumulate in soil, water and food sources.

Waste to energy

• Mixed waste incinerators are inefficient energy producers, capturing only about 20% of energy generated by the waste. A huge amount of valuable resources and energy already used are lost.
• Recycling plastic saves 3.7 to 5.2 times more energy, recycling paper saves 2.7 to 4.3 times more energy and recycling metal saves 30 to 888 times more energy that is gained through incineration.
• Waste is not a renewable energy source. Waste is composed of materials produced from unsustainable and non-renewable sources. Incinerating waste destroys resources that could be recovered or minimised.

For more information also contact GAIA  (Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives) www.no-burn.org

A Closer Look at Landfilling & Incineration (PDF 643 KB)