Last September, I wrote an article called Incineration: Not as Good As You Think. This article addressed some of the concerns I had about incinerators or as they are called in modern times, waste to energy plants. Since that time I�ve been continued to be involved in a variety of environmental organizations and have learned more about the pros-and-cons of incineration, learned a bit more and come up with new concerns.

Lots of Energy to Burn Garbage Cleanly

Have you ever tried burning trash in your backyard? How about some wet plastics like diapers? You probably are seeing the problem already � a smoldering fire with stinky black smoke. In contrast, you could burn that same thing on a roaring campfire, it would probably be gone in a few seconds, and wouldn�t smell nearly as bad or release nearly as much toxic smoke. So that�s what modern waste-to-energy plants do.

Waste-to-energy plants burn lots of natural gas, fuel oil, or coal to make the trash burn hotter. It�s not a net loss of energy, as the trash burned creates enough additional energy to make up for what is used to get the trash hot enough for burning. Yet, it�s still not a significant amount of energy generated compared to the amount of seemingly energy rich trash your putting into the plant.

And it�s not always clear how efficient waste-to-energy plants really are. Is the energy they create really necessary? Would the energy they use be generated by coal or oil? Could it instead be conserved or created utilizing natural gas? Sometimes energy created by waste-to-energy plants is viewed as frivolous by the general public, instead of the largely fossil fuel-based energy that it is.

What Burns Good, Recycles Good

Another commonsense thing is that what burns good recycles well. At least to a degree. Metals are the highest value recyclable and most waste-to-energy plants do a good job at removing them from the waste stream � but certainly not as good as source separation. Paper and plastics, lesser value recyclables, are tempting just to burn and not recycle. And that's a problem for all of us who believe recycling is a superior alternative to burning waste.

Yet, it turns out that burning is not an efficient way of generating energy as previously described. We would far better in increasing recycling over the extraction of raw materials. Oil in plastic can never be replaced, and new timber products require a remarkable amount of energy and create a significant amount of waste. Recycling isn't perfect, but if we push for new technologies and research over spending massive amounts of money on high-tech trash burners we would be far better off.

Money Better Not Wasted

Landfills take up relatively little space compared to the suburban sprawl that is eating up more and more of our fertile fields and forests. Indeed, except for the the negative side effects of run-off, truck traffic, and methane gases being released from landfills, the impact of landfills is relatively small. Mountains of toxins are not good neighboors, but they are reliable, low cost ways of getting rid of trash.

Incinerators require a significant amount of landfill space to take both unburnables and toxic fly ash that they capture in the stacks. Like burning trash, recycling can't eliminate landfills, but it can reduce landfill usage. Recycling plus aggressive compaction of trash can cut down on landfill space far more then just burning trash. All without nearly a billion dollars of equipment.

The money saved on landfilling over incineration can be used for many public benefits. It can be reduced the decline of our downtowns and promoting recycling. It can pay for the higher cost of exporting waste to larger landfills that are better managed and can take trash from many communities without the impacts of many smaller dumps.

Conclusion: Landfills Suck Less

Landfills are not a good solution to our solid waste problem. Yet, for now they are the only affordable solution to our solid waste problem that are also compatible with recycling. They minimize the creation of new toxins, and reduce the impacts of trash. Landfills are undesirable neighbors but so are incinerators. Trash is a problem and we must find alternatives.

We must also be realistic. We will be dumping trash in landfills for a long time in the future. It's not a good solution and we must look towards minimizing what we bury, and try to extend the lifetimes of our products. In particular, we need to look towards making our industrial processes more efficient and reduce the waste that making products creates.