Dear Senator/ Representative:
Re: Integrated Solid Waste Management Infrastructure Plan
I recently received my Ph.D. from University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s School of Public Policy. The area I focused on in my dissertation is the current state of solid waste management in the U.S. I used the 2019 Baltimore Clean air Act as a case study. Some of the major things that I learned were:
- We, as a nation, are creating over 262 million tons of municipal solid waste (MSW-household trash) every year.
- We have reduced waste generated by only 0.1 lbs./person in 28 years- from 4.6 in 1990 to 4.5 in 2018.
- More national programs and regulations aimed at reducing the amount of MSW need to be developed and instituted.
- We compost/ recycle less than 35% of the total.
- The EPA should release updated guidelines for these processes.
- We process less than 13% of the MSW in around 70 waste-to-energy (WTE) plants. The energy captured by the co-generation process is a Tier 1 renewable energy source.
- Many of these plants built in the 1980s and 1990s are located in minority areas, while the new West Palm Beach, FL facility that went online in 2016, borders a much wealthier neighborhood.
- Most of the emissions are below or near detection limits, much lower than allowed by U.S. very stringent regulations.
- Modern technology has significantly reduced emissions from WTE facilities. The West Palm Beach, FL WTE facility has employed such technology resulting in significant reductions.
- We bury more than 52% of untreated, still reactive MSW in landfills.
- These landfills release an unquantifiable amount of methane into the atmosphere. Methane is 84-86 (UNECE.org/challenge) times worse for green-house gas emissions than CO2, over a 20-year period.
- Over a 100-year period, the EPA states that the landfills CO2e emissions are 2.28 times higher than the emissions from WTE plants.
Baltimore City and the owners of the BRESCO WTE plant agreed to a settlement in November 2020 to extend the waste contract for 10 years. BRESCO agreed to spend $40 million dollars to upgrade its air pollution control systems. Other than NOx, these upgrades will bring BRESCO’s emissions down to the level of West Palm Beach, FL. This is a good example of how a municipality can benefit from a positive negotiation.
Congress passed a $1.2 trillion-dollar infrastructure bill. I submit that solid waste management is a very important part of our country’s infrastructure. I believe that the federal government should use some of the new infrastructure funds to:
- Attain to the international waste management hierarchy (avoid, reduce, recycle, recover, then landfill only inert materials that are no longer reactive),
- Replace the landfill-based infrastructure with an integrative solid waste management one.
- Enable and implement the upgrading of older WTE facilities to further reduce the emissions from the existing plants.
- Seriously consider re-evaluating our political will to expand the number of WTE plants. European countries have embraced the WTE model as a major component for handling their MSW.
- Embark on a path that will reduce the number of landfills in the U.S. The European Union adopted the 2000 Directive that greatly reduced the number of landfills in Europe.
There are international non-profit organizations that have the experience in implementing programs and policy initiatives to help the federal government adopt reasonable, coherent, scientifically, and environmentally prudent laws and guidelines. One organization is the Institute for Energy & Resource Management (IeRM). IeRM is a team of leading experts and specialists from universities, institutes, authorities, and similar institutions. We bring our expertise and proven track record to educate, to correct false information, and to counter special interests, so that corrective actions protecting people, the environment, and the economy can be taken. More information is available at ie-rm.org.
Please contact me so we can begin this conversation.
Very truly yours,
Dr. James P. Kruger, III
Senior Policy Advisor
Institute for Energy & Resource Management
Contact@ie-rm.org
Originally published on realclearenergy.org on December 9, 2021