Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork

Chapter 3: The politics of wasteSolving one problem often creates others. High temperature incineration designedto destroy dioxins “led to higher nitric oxide formation, the greater liberation oftoxic metals, and reduced mercury control,” says chemist Paul Connett, and “thedesire to [generate] energy … increased the post combustion formation of dioxin”[1998: 8]. High temperatures also reduce emissions of large particulates (PM 10)but produce more fine (PM 2.5) and ultra-fine particulates (PM 1). Thompson andAnthony [2005] observe that bag filters – currently the best available technology– catch the large particulates but most fine and virtually all ultra-fine particulatesescape. Further, ammonia used to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions results in theformation of ‘secondary particulates’ (PM 2.5) beyond the bag – and beyond the viewof the regulators. The fine particulates are more dangerous to human health thanPM 10. They penetrate deep into the body through the lungs to the blood stream andultimately into individual cells. There, they disrupt DNA with consequences notjust for those exposed or even for unborn babies, but for those yet to be conceived.The effects are exacerbated as toxic metals and dioxins attach themselves to theparticulates.Regulators commonly measure emissions by weight. Fine particulates, however, arelighter than the less dangerous PM 10caught in bag filters. The reduction in the weightof emissions thus gives a “false impression of safety” [Thompson and Anthony 2005:8]. That impression is reinforced by the regulators ignoring secondary particulatesalong with a host of other nagging questions. Writer Richard Girling notes thatEurope’s stringent new standards for all emissions from incinerators are arbitrary:“The legal limits do not meet any standard set by a health authority, for no suchstandards exist. Rather, they represent the best that current technology can achieve…” [2005: 196]. That is, they represent a kind of collusion between industry andregulators to provide false comfort.Then there is what is left behind. Incinerator ash weighs in at 15-20% of the originalweight of the rubbish according to the industry, and at up to 30% according to critics.It is divided between ‘bottom ash’, from the furnace grate, and fly ash captured fromthe flue gas. The industry says bottom ash is safe because it is contaminated only byinsignificant amounts of toxic metals and can be dumped as non-hazardous waste,used to make ash bricks or to mix with cement, or even spread on land as a fertiliser.Critics argue that this depends on how well the incinerator is run and what actuallywent into it. Fly ash goes up with the flue gas and contains high concentrations- 56 - groundWork - Wasting the Nation