Maryland could soon have nowhere to put its trash.
Two of the state’s incinerators may close in the next several years, following years of pressure from lawmakers and environmental activists. Their closure would amount to the end of incineration in the state — a goal for many environmental groups.
“We’re seeing a lot of successes,” said Mike Ewall, the founder and executive director of the Energy Justice Network, which advocates for the end of incineration. “There’s no way to do incineration in a good way.”
But the environmentalists’ success could also present state and local officials with a dilemma: Where should they put residential and commercial trash?
The closure of these incinerators, which consume 98% of the trash burned in the state, would have a dramatic effect. The Wheelabrator plant in Baltimore and the Resource Recovery Facility in Dickerson burned 1,320,765 tons of waste in 2017. In the same year, 2,277,011 tons of household waste were landfilled.
The Resource Recovery Facility accepts waste from across the state. Wheelabrator, the 10th-largest incinerator in the country, accepts waste from out of state as well.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Ian Round over at Maryland Matters