MSW Incinerators...

[John Thomas <jnthomas@infinet.com>]

Emmanual, I have read your questions, responses, and further questions 
that have been posted on the dioxin mail list.  I am responding to you 
directly, and I am also posting a copy to the dioxin list.  I hope you 
don't mind.

I think that everyone is taking this debate from the wrong perspective.  
I live in Columbus, Ohio.  We have a MSW incinerator that release 982 
grams per year of dioxin into our environment for the past 11 years.  But 
living in Columbus, Ohio, in the shadow of such a plant does not make me 
an expert on waste disposal, nor does it make me a certified scientist to 
analyse other "high tech" solution to waste.

What I offer is a different perspective!

Trash is a low tech problem.  Most municipal waste is made up of 
packaging materials.  This could be glass jars, tin cans, plastic bags, 
tin foil, styrofoam, and the rest.  These packages were produced by 
industry.  Therefore, while municipal waste is generally made up of 
individual waste, our individual waste is really made up of poorly 
designed packaging materials produced by industry.

In our state, many high tech solution to waste have been tried.  Our city 
alone operated a MSW incinerator from the 40s to the 60s.  After that one 
went bust for financial reasons, the city built a new one in the 70s.  
Now we are facing a trash crisis.  But it is not the crisis you would 
expect.  Ohio has so many landfills and incinerators that there is not 
enough trash any more to operate any of these facilities profitably.

Because our community is always looking for more and more trash to keep 
these high tech solutions running, our city government has had to design 
a recycling system that would fail.  This means that trash pickup is "free" 
(paid for from taxes) and pickup is regular.  Recycling costs extra per 
month and the pickup of recyclables is erratic.  Each house in Columbus 
has between a 30gal to a 300gal garbage receptical, while each home only 
gets a small 5gal tub for recycling.  The result of this "recycling" 
program has been dismal, only 10% of homes participating.  And even with 
this planned failure, our community does not generate enough trash to 
keep these high tech solutions operating.

If our town (or any community) was serious about waste reduction it would 
require the following:

1. no products sold in packaging material that could not be recycled.  If 
a community's recycling program could not handle a products package then 
that product could not be sold.
2. an increase in re-usable packaging.
3. most foods sold in bulk.
4. the encouragement of composting of organic materials.

If these solutions were tried, instead of MSW incinerators or the process 
you discuss, the waste stream would be dramatically reduced.

In the states, many MSW incinerators are built to reduce the amount of 
materials sent to the local landfill.  In almost all cases MSW 
incinerators need more waste than their local community provides to 
operate at a profit.  Therefore, waste is brought in from outside.  In 
many instanced this influx of additional waste means that the volume 
leaving the MSW incinerator is the same or above the volume of trash that 
was being disposed of prior to the MSW incinerator being built.

My suggestion is to avoid listening to these carpet bagging salesmen from 
Von Roll and the rest.  They do not really want to see a solution to your 
waste disposal problems.  If you were to truly solve your waste problems 
these companies would be out of business.

With Respect, in Gentleness and Peace.


John Thomas
http://www.infinet.com/~jnthomas/computer_revolution