Greenwashing of Trash Incineration in Baltimore, MD
by Molly Sherman
Months ago, the Baltimore City Board of Estimates decided to vote on the future of the BRESCO Wheelabrator incinerator the day after the nation’s most historic election, cowardly trying to do their work while people’s attentions were elsewhere. Despite their attempts to brazenly shield the vote from public influence, passionate voices showed up at the virtual hearing to testify before the vote was cast. They delivered a united message of fear for the lives of Baltimore citizens, sharing science and personal experiences.
The adverse health consequences of breathing in toxic air emissions are well documented in medical and scientific literature. Exposure to toxic air emissions correlates with decreased lung function, increased asthma and heart attacks, increased hospital admissions in the surrounding area, and increased death. Politicians refuse to acknowledge this dark reality, choosing to stick with trash incineration instead of pioneering a cleaner, safer future.
In the vote that followed, the Board of Estimates defied the lived reality of Baltimoreans and scientific consensus, approving another decade of burning trash in Baltimore. There is another chance to right this wrong, at least in part. In the 2021 Maryland legislative session, Marylanders have an opportunity to transform the laws in place that have sanctioned the environmental injustice of burning trash for decades and pursue meaningful solutions for waste management. A bill sponsored by Del. Dereck Davis, D-Prince George’s County, will refine the capture of practices defined as renewable energy.
Thus far, systemic greenwashing of the number one air polluter in Baltimore — the incinerator — has allowed successful marketing tricks to seep into legislative decisions. Wheelabrator and its enablers market trash burning as “waste to energy,” an unscientific term used to frame dirty energy generation as law abiding.
Trash incineration yields primarily toxic ash and air emissions like carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and sulfur dioxide, and relies on power generated by fossil fuels to run. It is touted as an answer for waste management and energy production, but in its current state, it is inefficient in both of those pursuits, and Maryland politicians should be pursuing genuine solutions to our waste management and energy needs.
As the trash incinerator stays operational, opportunities to implement recycling and a city-wide compost infrastructure are kicked down the road. About 80% of the waste incinerated at BRESCO is recyclable or compostable. That means most of the waste being turned into ash and released into the air never needed to go there in the first place.
Even worse, the negligent trash burning turns a profit. BRESCO has reportedly collected over $10 million through state renewable energy incentives because the politicians continue to permit incineration to cynically remain in the state’s renewable energy portfolio, receiving the same status as solar and wind power.
This is money that could have otherwise gone to true clean energy but has instead been directed toward a large-scale polluter.
Del. Julian Ivey, D-Prince George’s, has put forth a bill that would remove incineration from the renewable energy portfolio standard and it has bipartisan support.
If you believe subsidies for renewable energy should go only to clean sources, call your representatives in the House and Senate and say you want the legislature to vote on Ivey’s bill. We need the public to signal to the House Economic Matters Committee that this needs to be done.
For more ways to take action, sign up to get on Sunrise Movement Baltimore’s email list.
Molly is a founder of Sunrise Mvt. McDaniel College and a state policy co-lead of Sunrise Mvt. Baltimore
