Opinion/Budris: Burning waste has no place in Rhode Island
Kevin Budris is zero waste staff attorney at Conservation Law Foundation in Providence.
Once again, Rhode Islanders are facing the threat of dirty, dangerous waste incineration in our communities. New Jersey-based MedRecycler is proposing to build and operate a facility in West Warwick that will burn medical waste using a form of incineration called pyrolysis. If that weren’t enough, the Rhode Island legislature is considering bills that would allow facilities to burn plastics without complying with the state’s solid waste laws and regulations.
It’s time to close Rhode Island’s doors, once and for all, to all attempts to burn waste. Burning waste — in any form — is a threat to our communities, our environment, and our climate. Contrary to false claims from proponents, it does not generate renewable energy. Compared to coal-fired power plants, waste burning incinerators emit more carbon dioxide, more heavy metals like lead and mercury, and more toxic persistent organic pollutants like dioxins. Burning medical waste — in part because of its high plastic content — is especially toxic.
Supposedly “new” technologies like gasification, pyrolysis, and so-called “advanced recycling” or “chemical recycling” carry the same dangers. These technologies split the incineration process into two parts. First, waste is heated in a limited-oxygen environment to generate synthetic fuels and waste byproducts. Second, those synthetic fuels — and often the waste byproducts — are then burned, generating the same toxic and climate-damaging pollutants as incinerators. No matter what label you use, burning waste is burning waste.
What’s more, burning waste costs more and creates far fewer jobs than clean, safe zero waste alternatives. Per ton of waste, composting can create up to five times as many jobs as burning; and recycling can create up to 20 times as many jobs. These truly green, job-creating solutions — along with waste reduction and reuse — are the answer to our rapidly-filling landfill. Burning trash is not, and never will be, the answer.
We need only look to our neighbors in Connecticut and Massachusetts to see the significant, inequitable, and unjust burdens that come with burning waste. Connecticut burns two-thirds of its trash at incinerators located in communities of color and low-income communities in Hartford and Bridgeport. Six out of seven trash incinerators in Massachusetts are in or near environmental justice communities. These areas have higher asthma rates and higher blood lead levels than most of New England, and they have suffered disproportionately from the COVID pandemic — all related to the polluted air they are forced to breathe every day.
Unlike Connecticut and Massachusetts, the Ocean State has a long-standing policy against incineration. We cannot afford to turn our backs on that policy. Especially now, amid a pandemic that has exposed the already-existing environmental and health inequities in our state.
Community members in West Warwick and East Greenwich have been raising concerns about the proposed medical waste facility, and environmental groups like Conservation Law Foundation, Clean Water Action, the Audubon Society of Rhode Island, and the Environmental Council of Rhode Island have long opposed efforts to bring waste burning to Rhode Island.
The City of Providence has shown us a path forward to strengthen, rather than abandon, our commitment to avoid burning waste. This past September, thanks to the efforts of City Councilor Pedro Espinal, Providence amended its zoning ordinance to ban all high-heat waste processing — including incineration, gasification, pyrolysis, and so-called “chemical recycling.”
The whole state now has a chance to follow course.
Two new bills that would prohibit any waste-burning facility in Rhode Island — House Bill 5923, sponsored by Rep. Justine Caldwell, and Senate Bill 527, sponsored by Sen. Bridget Valverde — have now been introduced in the General Assembly.
Please support House Bill 5923 and Senate Bill 527. If these bills become law, we can make a long-lasting, enforceable commitment to protect all Rhode Islanders from the dangers of burning waste.
We must act now to make Rhode Island a cleaner, safer, and more just state.