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Incineration Moratorium (S)
Formal Title: An Act To Prohibit The Incineration Of Solid Waste
Sponsor: Rep. Mark Falzone
Contact: Naomi.Parker@state.ma.us
New/refile: New
Bill Text: below

The DEP instituted a moratorium on expanding trash incineration over 17 years ago. Incineration produces toxins such as dioxins, furans and other particulates. As a source of energy, burning trash produces more global warming CO2 than natural gas, oil, or even coal. Current technologies have made inadequate progress in reducing the toxicity and threat that incineration poses to the state’s resident. This bill makes our temporary moratorium permanent.

Additional Information:

Incinerators burn jobs.
All reports agree that there are many more jobs created from waste reduction strategies compared to incineration. By limiting incineration we can foster new business start-ups in disassembly, repair, recycling and composting.

Incinerators destroy resources.
Many of the products now being burned are made from finite resources. Most of municipal solid waste is reusable material that can either be recycled or composted.

Incineration wastes energy.
Waste-to-energy recovers only 1/5th of the Btus. in trash. Recycling on the other hand saves 3 to 5 times that amount—the difference in using recycled feedstock vs. the energy expenditure in harvesting, mining, and processing virgin feedstock.

Incineration contributes to global warming.
Incinerators emit more CO2 per megawatt hour than coal fired power plants.

Incinerators have public health impacts.
Massachusetts incinerators emit dioxins and other hazardous compounds. The EPA does not require emission limits for ultra fine particles that are taken into the lungs and from there into the bloodstream. Numerous studies show that people living near incinerators bear the heaviest health burden.

Incinerators compete with recycling and hamper waste reduction efforts.
Incinerators and recycling compete for the same high-btu waste stream: paper, cardboard, and plastics. The Tellus Report, commissioned by the DEP and released on 12/19/2008, recommends against locking into incineration as a key strategy because it can undermine waste reduction efforts such as recycling and composting.

How this bill works for Massachusetts
This bill makes the present DEP moratorium on additional incineration capacity law. We’re already burning 34% of our waste, an extremely high percentage compared to other states. By capping the amount that can be burned we can:

• Protect our residents and the air and water from additional pollution
• Conserve our resources
• Develop waste reduction programs in reuse, recycling, and composting that create new businesses and jobs.

BILL TEXT: AN ACT TO PROHIBIT THE INCINERATION OF SOLID WASTE

SECTION 1. Section 150A of Chapter 111 of the General Laws is hereby further amended by adding the following paragraphs:—

No site in any city or town shall be assigned as a site or the expansion of an existing site for a facility for the combustion, incineration, thermal conversion, or gasification of municipal solid waste or construction and demolition debris, or a resource recovery facility, which is rated by the department at more than one ton of refuse per hour.

The department shall not grant a permit for a facility or the expansion of an existing facility for the combustion, incineration, thermal conversion, or gasification of municipal solid waste or construction and demolition debris, or a resource recovery facility, which is rated by the department at more than one ton of refuse per hour.

SECTION 2. Chapter 16 of the General Laws is hereby amended by striking Section 19 and by striking the second paragraph of section 20 and inserting in its place thereof the following:—

The comprehensive statewide master plan referred to herein shall describe, to the maximum practicable extent, a short and long-range plan for reduction of the per capita generation of solid waste throughout the commonwealth, the solid waste programs and facilities which the department determines to be necessary or convenient to promote the reduction of waste generation and to increase recycling of solid waste in a manner which protects the public health, safety and environment and is financially sound, and the funding for the development of such facilities and programs which the department finds to be reasonable necessary to accomplish said purposes.

SECTION 3. This act shall take effect upon its passage.

Please note: Bill text is based on pre-filing information provided by State legislative personel. In some cases, bills as filed may differ slightly.