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In total, 1.6 million Americans live next to the country's most polluting incinerators, with minority and low-income communities exposed to the vast majority of pollution from these waste-burning facilities.
The combustion of household and commercial waste can release a significant amount of pollutants, including mercury, lead and small soot particles. This pollution is however not evenly distributed. According to a study conducted by New York's New School's Tishman Environment and Design Center, 79% of the 73 US-based incinerators are located within three miles of low-income and minority neighborhoods.
In total, 4.4 million people live within five kilometers of an incinerator in the United States. Of this total, 1.6 million live near the top 12 incinerators measured in terms of pollutant emissions among mercury, lead, particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxide and nitric oxide. carbon.
These pollutants are related to various health problems, including asthma and heart disease. US incinerators generally adhere to the rules regarding the amount of allowable emissions. But the researchers said even incinerators operating within the limits of their permits exacerbate public health problems that weigh heavily on Black, Hispanic and poorer communities.
"Many of these communities are very vulnerable to pollution and in the United States, we do not regulate the place of the cumulative burden they face," said Ana Baptista, associate director of Tishman and co-author of the report. "Even with the best pollution control systems, there is real concern for people living near incinerators."
The report, commissioned by the Gaia anti-incinerator group and based on data from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), traces the rise of incinerators since the 1980s after the federal rules eliminated many of the most dangerous landfills. .
Many American incinerators, which typically last about 30 years, are nearing the end of their lives, making them increasingly expensive to maintain.
Facilities can, however, benefit from subsidies for renewable energy by helping to create electricity from the combustion of waste. China's decision to ban the import of most plastics for recycling indirectly stimulated the decision, leaving many US cities to burn plastic they can not reuse.
Proponents of incinerators argue that they are less harmful than landfills, which can release large amounts of methane, a powerful heating gas on the planet. However, activists in several cities have fought long battles against nearby incinerators. The people of Detroit celebrated last year after the closure of a controversial plant, accused of odorous smells and noise.
"Our communities have lost neighbors who are victims of cancer and asthma," said KT Andresky, campaign organizer at Breathe Free Detroit. "Local businesses have lost the reason for crime and fires due to disinvestment around the incinerator. Entire neighborhoods were devastated. That's what the Detroit Incinerator did while it was burning all our garbage. "
The placement of incinerators appears to follow a well-established pattern of environmental injustice in the United States, where communities of color are much more likely to be housed near sources of pollution, such as power plants, highways, landfills and other industries, than their neighbors. white counterparts.
"Incinerators have always played an important role in creating or expanding areas of environmental sacrifice in our most vulnerable communities, lowering the value of housing and increasing the number of diseases such as cancer. Asthma and other health effects of people living near released toxic emissions. "Said Mustafa Santiago Ali, former head of environmental justice at the EPA, who left the agency after two decades in 2017.
Ali said residents of vulnerable communities should be served by renewable energy and "zero waste" streams, eliminating the need for incinerators.
"Incinerators have never been anything but public health, they have been race, power, justice, governance and poverty," he said.
"The decision we are making today, based on more than 30 years of experience in environmental justice, will tell us a lot about the evolution of decision-making in our country."
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