Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork

Chapter 3: The politics of wasteboth of heavy metals and dioxins. The better the emission control technology, themore toxic the ash. It should therefore be dumped at hazardous landfills.The second problem is that the claims of industry and regulators assume thatthe incinerator is consistently well operated to ensure ‘complete combustion’.Operation is complicated by the mixture of rubbish. Some burns fiercely, someabsorbs more energy than it releases and so dampens the fire. New generationincinerator managers must therefore also control the waste stream to exclude toxics,materials that do not burn well and also those that should be recycled. This bringsup another contradiction as candidates for recycling include paper and plasticwhich do burn well. As with other large plants, incinerators do not in fact operatewithout periodic upset conditions or without occasional shut-downs and start-ups.These “non-steady-state conditions … induce dramatic concentration 38 increases ofproducts of incomplete combustion such as dioxins” [Watson 2007: 51]. Moreover,the accumulation of dioxins in these conditions creates a ‘memory effect’ thatinduces further dioxin formation for up to 24 hours after optimal operating hasbeen restored.Good operating is also compromised by costs. In the US several corporate operatorshave been caught by-passing pollution control equipment. At Columbus, Ohio,this was only revealed after people started getting rare illnesses. Connett notesthat this single plant was emitting 5 times more dioxins than the EnvironmentalProtection Agency admitted for all US incinerators. In fact, although emissionsvary according to the waste that comes in, continuous monitoring of dioxins is notpossible and no-one knows how much is actually emitted. Inspections are rare andthe corporations are given notice.In Britain, the Newcastle City Council allowed the corporation running the Bykersincinerator to spread ash, as a ‘soil improver’, on footpaths, parks and allotments andso avoid costly landfill. The result was dioxin levels at 2,000 times the recommendedlimit for topsoil. The saga ended in 2002 with a paltry fine for the council and thecorporation and the termination of waste incineration at Bykers. Girling quotes aleading corporate waste manager’s response to the scandal: “only a complete berk”38 In a “sophisticated” Japanese incinerator emissions during a single start-up were equivalent to 2 months’ worthof “normal” or steady-state emissions; in China a single start-up clocked emissions equivalent to 60% of a fullyear’s “normal” emissions [Watson 2007:51].Wasting the Nation - groundWork - 57 -