Incineration & Evil Intent

["Rebecca Leighton Katers" <cwac@mail.execpc.com>]

While everyone should certainly know better now, 
I agree with Sam McClintock's assessment that 
many incinerator promoters in the 70s and 80s 
were probably well-meaning.

As a college student in 1981, I took a course in 
Solid Waste Management.  The professor in that 
course was essentially a nice man who was 
mesmerized by the promise of incinerators, and he 
passed "the magic" on to all his students.   Our 
class project for the semester was to "plan" a 
MSW incinerator for downtown Green Bay, 
Wisconsin.

The Professor was absolutely convinced that 
incinerators were the "Answer."   In fact, I got 
in quite a bit of trouble asking more than once 
why we didn't study or discuss recycling.   He 
stormed at me and said it didn't work --- they 
had already tried it in Green Bay in the 70s and 
no one cooperated.   He said our job was to 
manage the solid waste once it was generated --- 
the only people still talking about recycling 
were soft-headed environmentalists.

Let's face it --- to those who see only the good 
of incineration there seem to be a lot of 
benefits:  waste to energy, reduced landfill 
needs, destruction of pathogens,  high-tech 
magic, etc.   It seems like the pinnacle of 
modern, even environmental, answers to solid 
waste.   It turned waste into a resource.

And everyone I knew then believed that air 
pollution control equipment took care of any 
minor pollution problems.   Everyone 
assumed "the regulations are strict" --- (THIS IS 
WHERE WE NEED TO FOCUS OUR PUBLIC
EDUCATION!!)

I remember from that old class that several 
professors were working together to address the 
financing, waste flow, siting and other details 
--- and they were ALL enthusiastic supporters of 
the project.

They didn't know any better.   They were missing 
critical pieces of information.    These 
professors weren't "evil," but they did have 
tunnel-vision.

When I was elected County Supervisor and City 
Alderwoman in 1988, the incinerator was being 
formally proposed.   But by then, I had read a 
great deal about incinerator disasters (financial 
and environmental) across the country and 
convinced the local government that it was risky 
and needed more investigation.

In the meantime, Wisconsin passed a strong 
recycling law, and Green Bay now has a very 
successful curb-side recycling program, in 
addition to a permanent household hazardous waste 
drop-off site.

The MSW incinerator never happened, but we're 
still siting landfills for the remaining waste 
--- and neighbors of those sites STILL want a 
MSW incinerator, hoping it will prevent a 
landfill by their homes.

(And many of our papermills propose incinerators 
for their waste sludges....)

I think we should hold the incineration 
specialists' feet to the fire, because they 
surely knew about toxic emissions 
coming from incinerators.  

But the less-informed people who supported these 
projects didn't know any better.   And the 
majority of people promoting incinerators 
probably fit in this second category.

It's inaccurate (and a waste to time) to blame 
ALL incinerator supporters for evil intent.

Rebecca Leighton Katers
Clean Water Action Council of N.E. Wisconsin
2220 Deckner Avenue
Green Bay, WI 54302
Phone:  920-468-4243
Fax:  920-468-1234
E-mail:  cwac@execpc.com