Zero Waste 2020 versus Incineration
description
Transcript of Zero Waste 2020 versus Incineration
Zero Waste 2020versus
Incineration
Dr Paul ConnettProfessor of Chemistry
St Lawrence University, Canton, NY
Italy, January, 2005
Paul @ fluorideALERT.org
www.no-burn.org
Arguments against incineration
• Toxic air emissions
• Toxic ash
• Extremely expensive
• Extremely unpopular and undemocratic
• A waste of energy!
• There are better alternatives
• Incineration is not sustainable
AIR EMISSIONS
CO2 + H2O
ACID GASES:HCI, HF, SO2
NOx
TOXIC METALS:Pb, Cd, Hg, As, Cr etc
NEW COMPOUNDS:Hundreds of 1) Chlorinated,2) Brominated, and 3) Fluorinated compoundse.g. 1) PCDDs (DIOXINS)PCDFs (FURANS)2) PBDEs (poly brominated diphenyl ethers)3) PFCs (per fluorinated compounds)
MODERNMODERNARCHITECTSARCHITECTSDO THEIRDO THEIRBEST TOBEST TODISGUISEDISGUISE“SMOKE STACK”“SMOKE STACK”
Benzene Depictions
C
CC
C
CC
H
H
H
H
H
H=
C6H6
2,3,7,8-TETRACHLORODIBENZO-P-DIOXIN
2,3,7,8-TETRA CHLORO DIBENZO DIOXIN
2,3,7,8-TETRA CHLORO DIBENZO FURAN
There are 17 extremely toxic dioxins and furans. They have chlorine at the 2,3,7 and 8 positions: 7 Dioxins and 10 Furans
DIOXINS IN OUR FOOD
• Dioxins are fat soluble and persistent and accumulate in the food chain, specially animal fats. Over 90% of our daily dioxin intake comes from dairy products, meat,and fish.
DIOXINMILK
Dioxins - Major Concerns
• Current daily intakes from food exceed European allowable daily intakes.
• Dioxins disrupt several different hormonal systems (e.g. male and female sex hormones, thyroid hormone and insulin).
Dioxins - Major Concerns
• One liter of cows’ milk gives the same dose of dioxin as breathing air next to the cows for EIGHT MONTHS (Connett and Webster, 1987).
• The liver cannot convert dioxins to water soluble products thus they steadily accumulate in human body fat.
• A man cannot get rid of dioxins from his fat BUT A woman can…• By having a baby!
• This means the highest doses of dioxin go to the fetus and have the potential to disrupt fetal development which is under hormonal control.
OUT OF OUR BABIES!OUT OF OUR BABIES!
WE WANT DIOXINWE WANT DIOXIN
Institute of Medicine, 2003
Dioxins and Dioxin-like Compounds in the Food Supply
Strategies to Decrease Exposure
July 1, 2003
Institute of Medicine, 2003
• Fetuses and breastfed infants may be at particular risk from exposure to dioxins due to their potential to cause adverse neurodevelopmental, neurobehavioral, and immune system effects…
Institute of Medicine, 2003
“…recommends that the government place a high public health priority on reducing dioxin intakes by girls and young women in the years well before pregnancy is likely to occur.
• Substituting low-fat or skim milk, for whole milk…and other foods lower in animal fat by girls and young women…”
WE WANT DIOXINWE WANT DIOXIN
OUT OF OUR FOOD!OUT OF OUR FOOD!
Incineration is not good for agriculture
• Incinerators burn the organics which are needed for organic farming.
• Incinerators emit persistent pollutants (like dioxin and toxic metals) which accumulate in food and soil.
Politicians often approve incineration before they have any idea where the toxic ash
is going to go!
MODERN TRASH INCINERATOR
CHUTE
SECONDARYCHAMBER
TURBINE
BOILER
ELECTRICITY
STEAM
TRASH
BOTTOM ASHFLY ASH
TEMP< 200oC
SEMI-DRYSCRUBBER
FABRIC FILTER
WET SCRUBBER
DE-NOX
ACTIVATEDCHARCOAL
Ca(OH) 2 SUSPENSION
AMMONIAINJECTION
GRATES
ASH THE INCINERATOR CRISIS
Catch-22PollutionEquipment
3-(4) TONS TRASH 1 TON ASH
Fly ash fails EP TOX test 100% time Bottom ash fails “ “ “ 38% timeCombined ash fails “ “ “ 47% time
(EDF, 1988)
10% FLY ASH90% BOTTOM ASH
INCINERATOR ASH - Sweden
Incineration is not good for tourism
• Many tourists will be coming from communities which have rejected incineration
Incineration is extremely unpopular
• In the US over 300 incinerator proposals defeated since 1985
• In 1985, NYC wanted 6, but got none! • In 1985, California wanted 35 , but only got 3!• In 1985, NJ wanted 17, but only got 5 and those
5 now have an accumulated debt of 1.6 billion dollars!
• US has not built a trash incinerator for more than 8 years.
Italian taxpayers are being deceived
• The fees to deliver a ton of waste to the incinerator will be more than for the alternatives
• The electricity produced will cost taxpayers three times as much as other sources of electricity - because of an Italian law providing a huge subsidy to incinerators.
INCINERATION BURNS FINITE RESOURCES --
EUROPE DOES NOT RECOGNIZE INCINERATION AS A RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCE.
Incineration is a poor investment
• Most of the money spent on incinerators goes into complicated machinery and leaves the community, whereas
• The money spent on the alternatives goes into jobs and stays in the community.
• With incineration, after 20 years all you are left with is a huge pile of toxic ash, very few extra jobs, and
• You will have moved no closer to a sustainable society.
“Even if we made incineration safesafeWe would never make it sensiblesensible.It simply does not make sensespending so much tax-payers’ money destroying resources we we should be sharing with the should be sharing with the futurefuture.”
INCINERATION IS
NOT SUSTAINABLE
UNFORTUNATELYMANY
POWERFUL PEOPLEARE NOT INTERESTED
INSUSTAINABILITY
Their view of the world lookssomething like this…
By the time a high schoolstudent leaves school in the US,
he or shewill have watched over
350,000 TV commercials.
Paul Hawken The Ecology of Commerce.
We are living on this planet as if we had another one to go to
We cannot run a throwaway society on a finite planet
Incinerators simply BURN the evidence of this unacceptable practice
We need to face the real problem…
Our task is not to dispose of waste but to stop making it
Unfortunately, too many European engineers are
getting better and better at tackling questions at the
wrong end of the problem
A “BACK-END” THINKER
1. A CUP2. A BUCKET3. A FOOT PUMP4. AN ELECTRIC PUMP
A “FRONT-END” THINKER !
Waste is not a technological problem
it is an industrial designproblem
We have to design
a
zero waste society
“A Citizens’ Agenda for Zero Waste”
www.GRRN.ORG (ENGLISH)
www.Ambientefuturo.interfree.it (ITALIAN)
[email protected] the Road to Zero Waste
Part 1: Nova Scotia, Canada
Part 2: Burlington, Vermont, US
Part 3: Canberra, Australia.
Part 4: San Francisco Bay Area
Pieces of ZeroCollection 1: Leadership and Creativity
MOVING TOWARDS THE FRONT END -we need to design
waste out of the industrial system
ZERO WAST E
NO TO A THROWAWAY
SOCIETY
YES TO ASUSTAINABLE
SOCIETY2020
ZERO WASTEBY
NO TO INCINERATION
NO TO LANDFILL
To achieve Zero Waste
We need three things:
1) COMMUNITY RESPONSIBILITY (at back end)
2) INDUSTRIAL RESPONSIBILITY (at front end)
3) GOOD LEADERSHIP
Community Responsibility
• Begins with separation of compostables, recyclables and residuals (e.g. San Francisco).
• Drop off centers for household toxics (e.g. Nova Scotia)
• Centers for reuse & repair (and retraining) of appliances and furniture etc (e.g. Burlington, Vermont)
• Deconstruction -not demolition- of old buildings (e.g. Canberra, Australia)
• Residual screening facilities (e.g. Nova Scotia).
The San Francisco Program
Robert Haley
Recycling Program Manager
Department of the Environment
City and County of San Francisco
San Francisco
• Population = 850,000• Little space• Education has to be done in three languages• Over 50% diversion reached by 2000• 63% diversion reached by 2004• 75% diversion by 2010 (goal)• 100% diversion by 2020 i.e. Zero Waste
The “Fantastic 3”
ALL FOOD SCRAPS, YARD TRIMMINGS AND COMPOSTABLE PAPER GO IN THE
GREEN CART
ALL BOTTLES, CANS AND RECYCLABLE PAPER GO IN THE
BLUE CART
WHAT CAN’T BE RECYCLED OR COMPOSTED GOES IN THE
BLACK CART
PROGRAM BROCHURE OUTSIDE
BUS SHELTER AD
SPLIT COMPACTING SIDE-LOADERS FOR RECYCLABLES AND REFUSE
@ Pier 96
Recycle Central
DEDICATED COMPACTING SIDE-LOADERS FOR COMPOSTABLES
SMALL BUSINESSES ARE COLLECTED WITH RESIDENCES
Compost Facility
RICH COMPOST READY FOR MARKET
ORGANIC PRODUCE RETURNS TO SF MARKETS & RESTAURANTS
Canberra, Australia.
• Canberra (the capitol of Australia) was the first city worldwide to declare a zero waste goal.
• Law passed in 1996: “No Waste by 2010”
NEW ZEALAND
• By 2004 over 60% of the municipalities in NZ had declared a Zero Waste goal by 2020.
Nova Scotia
• 50% waste diverted from landfills in 5 years (Halifax ~ 60%)
• 1000 jobs created since April 1996
• Another 2000 jobs created in industries using separated materials
Materials re-used in manufacturing in Nova Scotia:
• All corrugated cardboard• All newspapers, magazines, & other paper• Some plastics• All waste paint• All organic material• All glass• All tires• Steel goes to Quebec
MORE TOXICS
NON-RECYCLABLE PACKAGINGAND OBJECTS - RESEARCH FOR BETTER INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
RESIDUAL SCREENING & RESEARCH FACILITY
SCREENING FACILITY AT COMMUNITY CONTROLLED LANDFILL
MORERECYCLABLES
DIRTYDIRTYORGANICORGANICFRACTIONFRACTION
INTERIM LANDFILL
BIOLOGICAL STABILIZATION
The message to industry
• If we can’t re-use it, recycle it or compost it
• industry shouldn’t be making it.
• We need better industrial design for the 21st Century.
A comparison
• With incineration
• You convert three tons of trash to
• one ton of ash
• that nobody wants!
With a zero waste strategy
• You convert three tons of trash into:• One ton of recyclables
• One ton of compostables,• and
• One ton of education!
Pay Pay by by bagbag
2. MATERIALS RECOVERY FACILITY
& RE-MANUFACTORING
2. RECYCLABLES1. COMPOSTABLES
COMMUNITY RESPONSIBILITY BEGINS WITH SEPARATION
3.RESIDUAL SCREENING & RESEARCH FACILITY1. COMPOSTING FACILITY
LOCAL USE ?
3. RESIDUALS
INDUSTRIAL RESPONSIBILITY
1) Better industrial design
2) Extended Producer Responsibility
3) Clean up manufacturing process
INDUSTRIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN ACTION
1) THE BEER INDUSTRY, ONTARIO, CANADA
• Uses refillable glass bottles
• 98% recovered
• Reusable glass bottles 11 cents cheaper per serving than disposable bottles.
• 2000 jobs in collection and cleaning
• No cost to municipality
• Packaging costs internalized
INDUSTRIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN ACTION
2) XEROX CORPORATION EUROPE
• Recovering old copying machines from 16 countries
• Over 95% of materials reused or recycled!• $76 million saved in 2000 !!
Pieces of Zero
A piece of zero
• In 2003, Cole’s Bay, Tasmania, became the first town in Australia to ban plastic shopping bags -since then 80 more towns have followed suit.
A piece of zero
Irish Plastic Bag Tax:
• It is estimated that the introduction of a 15-cent environmental levy on plastic bags has reduced… consumption of these bags by about 92 %…Receipts from the levy (in 2003) …amounted to over 12.7 million Euros. …proceeds are used to support waste management and other environmental initiatives... (A survey) indicated that reusable shopping bags are now being used by 90 % of shoppers.
• Ref: Sustainable Consumption and Production in the European Union, 2004.
Other initiatives
• The COOP supermarket chain near Florence allows customers to refill their own containers with shampoo, detergent etc.
GOOD LEADERSHIP
We need political and industrial leaders who are
visionary
imaginative
creative
and
WHO ARE NOT BORING
Incinerators vs Zero Waste 2020 •Boring - exciting
•one big black box - hundreds of little green boxes
•discourages innovation - thrives on innovation
•back-end solution - front-end solution
•destroys resources - recovers resources
•recovers a little energy - saves far more energy
•little reduction in global - reduces global warming of
warming primary processes
•puts persistent toxins - makes toxics visible - pressure
into the air or ash for clean production
Incineration Zero Wasteno stimulation of local economy
generates many small businesses
anti-democratic democratic
not sustainable sustainable
need lazy decision makers
hard-working decision makers prepared to work with communities
Remember you don’t have to get down to zero to beat
incinerationIncinerators only reduce the
amount of waste landfilled by 70%
“When you build an incinerator, you are Advertizing to the world the you were
Not clever enough - either politically Or technically - to recover your
Discarded resources”
THIS COMMUNITY
IS NOT READY
FOR THE DEMANDS
OF THE 21ST
CENTURY.
God God RecyclesRecyclesThe DevilThe Devil
BurnsBurns
But it is not enough to beat incinerators locally -we need
an effective national and international strategy
ITALY
• Web: Ambientefuturo.interfree.it• Email: [email protected]• On this web site:1) An Italian translation of my paper: “A Citizens’ Agenda for Zero Waste” 2) Details on videos. 3) Details on national network. 4) A link to no-burn.org (worldwide campaign
against incineration and for sustainable alternatives)
Worldwide
• Web: no-burn.org GRRN.org
And soon:
• AmericanHealthstudies.orgThis site will have all back issues of WASTE NOT;
details on waste and other videos; scientific details on the dangers of back yard burning; water fluoridation, fluoride exposure and fluorinated pesticides.
DIOXINS IN OUR FOOD
• Dioxins are fat soluble and persistent and accumulate in the food chain, specially animal fats. Over 90% of our daily dioxin intake comes from dairy products, meat,and fish.
DIOXINMILK
Dioxins - Major Concerns
• US EPA estimates that current daily intake represents an incremental cancer risk of over 1 in 1000.
• Current daily intakes from food exceed European allowable daily intakes.
• Dioxins disrupt several different hormonal systems (e.g. male and female sex hormones, thyroid hormone and insulin).
Dioxins - Major Concerns
• One liter of cows’ milk gives the same dose of dioxin as breathing air next to the cows for EIGHT MONTHS (Connett and Webster, 1987).
• The liver cannot convert dioxins to water soluble products thus they steadily accumulate in human body fat.
• The man cannot get rid of dioxins from his fat BUT A woman can…
• By having a baby!
• This means the highest doses of dioxin go to the fetus and have the potential to disrupt fetal development which is under hormonal control.
OUT OF OUR BABIES!OUT OF OUR BABIES!
WE WANT DIOXINWE WANT DIOXIN
Institute of Medicine, 2003
Dioxins and Dioxin-like Compounds in the Food Supply
Strategies to Decrease Exposure
July 1, 2003
Institute of Medicine, 2003
• Fetuses and breastfeeding infants may be at particular risk from exposure to dioxins due to their potential to cause adverse neurodevelopmental, neurobehavioral, and immune system effects in developing systems…
Institute of Medicine, 2003• …The committee recommends that the government
place a high public health priority on reducing dioxin intakes by girls and young women in the years well before pregnancy is likely to occur.
• Substituting low-fat or skim milk, for whole milk…and other foods lower in animal fat by girls and young women in the crucial years before pregnancy…
WE WANT DIOXINWE WANT DIOXIN
OUT OF OUR FOOD!OUT OF OUR FOOD!
Dioxin in cow’s milkpg I-TEQ/g fat (ppt)
• Denmark 2.6• Finland 0.83 - 1.17• France 1.81• Germany 0.71 - 0.87• Ireland 0.08 - 0.51 Average
in Ireland = 0.2 • Netherlands 0.38 - 1.6• Spain 1.2 - 2.0• Sweden 0.93 - 2.0• UK 1.01 Measurements reported in 1999,
(IOM, 2003).
There is very little dioxin monitoring in Italy in cow’s milk
or mother’s milkand
Italian law only requires dioxin measurements on incinerators
once a year!
THE CHAIN OF PUBLIC HEALTH PROTECTIONHAS THREE LINKS.
STRONG REGULATIONS
ADEQUATEMONITORING
TOUGHENFORCEMENT
IF ANY LINK IS WEAK THE PUBLIC IS NOT PROTECTED
Even while Italy proposes to build over 100 new incinerators,
and many in food producing areas, there is no scientific
accountability.This program is not scientific but
political.
Incineration
• Is more about making money for a few people than
• A genuine solution to a serious social problem
THE BAD LAWLe
vel o
f P
ollu
tion
Level of corruption
Level of Pollution
Public participation
THE GOOD LAW
EFFECTING CHANGE
Experts may sharpen the point
But you need the hammer of public opinion to drive the nail home
POLITE PEOPLE
GET
POISONED
ANGRY PEOPLE
GET
ORGANISED !
THREE FINAL MESSAGES• TO CITIZENS• Don’t let the experts take your common
sense away.
• TO POLITICIANS• Put your faith back in people. Stop trying to
solve all your problems with magic machines and overpaid consultants
• TO ACTIVISTS
• Have FUN !!!
The Battle Hymn of Garbage(Chorus)
We don’t want incineration
We don’t want incineration
We don’t want incineration
We know there’s a better way!
The Battle Hymn of Garbage
Mine eyes have seen the garbage
That’s a smoldering on the grate
We must stop incineration
Before it is too late
Unless we wish the dangers
We had better separate
And we must do it now!
The Battle Hymn of Garbage(Chorus)
We don’t want incineration
We don’t want incineration
We don’t want incineration
We know there’s a better way!
The Battle Hymn of Garbage
The state has deemed appropriate
The burning of our trash
And the builders and the owners are just countin’ up the cash
But we citizens believe the move
Is foolish and is rash
And we won’t buy it now!
The Battle Hymn of Garbage(Chorus)
We don’t want incineration
We don’t want incineration
We don’t want incineration
We know there’s a better way!
The Battle Hymn of Garbage
Mine eyes have seen the garbage
That’s a smoldering on the grate
We must stop incineration
Before it is too late
Unless we wish the dangers
We had better separate
And we must do it now!
The Battle Hymn of Garbage(Chorus)
We don’t want incineration
We don’t want incineration
We don’t want incineration
We know there’s a better way!
The Battle Hymn of Garbage
Mine eyes have seen the burning
Of the garbage in our town
Officials built incinerators
While we all just stood around
Now they want to regulate them
Just to keep our voices down
But we won’t buy it now!
The Battle Hymn of Garbage(Chorus)
We don’t want incineration
We don’t want incineration
We don’t want incineration
We know there’s a better way!
The Battle Hymn of Garbage
We urge our legislators
To undo what they have done
And stop incineration
Before more harm is done
We are here today together
In strength and unison
And we must stop it now!
The Battle Hymn of Garbage(Chorus)
We don’t want incineration
We don’t want incineration
We don’t want incineration
We know there’s a better way!
The Battle Hymn of Garbage
While we recognize our landfills
All are swelling with the waste
It doesn’t justify
A bad decision made in haste
Let us put our heads together
So the problem may be faced
And we must do it now!
The Battle Hymn of Garbage(Chorus)
We don’t want incineration
We don’t want incineration
We don’t want incineration
We know there’s a better way!
MUNICIPAL WASTE INCINERATION:
A POOR SOLUTION FOR THE TWENTY
FIRST CENTURYwww.no-burn.org