Waste-to-energy technology more toxic, groups warn

The Phillips 66 Los Angeles Refinery Wilmington Plant in Wilmington, California on Nov. 28, 2022. GETTY IMAGES PHOTO VIA AFP

SEVERAL international environmental groups warned against the use of waste-to-energy (WTE) systems to generate electricity, saying the technology offered “false solutions” to waste management, is more expensive and likely to produce pollutants that are more toxic.

“Incineration, in particular, stands out as one of the most environmentally harmful and costly waste disposal methods,” said the group Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) in a Facebook post.

“The industry greenwashes incineration as ‘waste-to-energy’ despite generating minimal amounts of usable energy,” GAIA said.

Incineration is the only known method to convert waste to energy.

The group said the incineration industry is “exploiting” the falsehood of WTE to “access billions of dollars in federal, state, and local green, renewable, and sustainable energy subsidies and tax breaks.”

“Incinerators are dirtier than the rest of the energy sources. They emit 3.8 times as much greenhouse gases,” it added.

GAIA said incinerators transform waste into toxic ash which would worsen air and water pollution. It added that the ash generated by WTE is more toxic than the waste that was burned to produce electricity.

“This toxic ash causes harm to human health, increasing asthma risks, reduced lung function and greater hospital admission,” GAIA said.

“In addition, incinerators are costly to build and run, wasting billions of taxpayer money that could go into real zero waste solutions,” it said.

Another group, Zero Waste Asia, said WTE was neither a “just” nor “transitional” source of power.

“The International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Asian Development Bank must stop funding WTE projects to replace coal plants positioned as a renewable source of energy,” Zero Waste Asia said.

“Worse, privatizing the waste sector almost always displaces waste pickers. It is urgent to phase out these false solutions,” it said.

The group said WTE is worse than coal because its greenhouse gas emission is 2.5 times higher than coal; its emission of toxic chemical dioxin/furan is 28 times higher than coal; its emission of mercury and nitrogen oxide is 14 times and 3.2 times higher, respectively; it emits nearly 10 times more carbon monoxide, a highly poisonous gas; and 20 percent more sulfur dioxide and 2.5 times more carbon dioxide.

Ronald Steenblik, senior technical advisor of Sustainable Just Economic Systems (SJES), backed GAIA during a livestream event last Thursday, January 25.

“WTE plants do reduce plastic as a physical waste but produce large amounts of CO2 emissions, and depending on the sophistication of the plant, the release of toxic air pollutants,” Steenblik said. “Residuals from burning plastics also have to be disposed of properly,” he added.

Steenblik said that because of potential harm, incinerating plants in the European Union had been required to report CO2 emissions this year.

“They, too, produce a lot of waste. And in the end, burning fuel derived from plastics adds CO2 to the atmosphere,” he said.