Incinerator Blues, Part 4: Why Not Recycling?
By Donella Meadows
–September 24, 1987–
Most everyone involved in the Great National Garbage Problem would agree on the following propositions:
Landfills are better (and more expensive) than open dumps; they reduce smell, rats, and pollution of air and surface water. But landfills take up space and pollute groundwater.
Mass-burn incinerators are better (and much more expensive) than landfills; they take less land and [...]
Dear Folks:September 21, 1987
Dear Folks, My mind feels like a logjam. So many things are bursting to get out and be told that I don’t know where to start, so nothing comes out, so I spin my wheels. Let’s see, how to create order here? Maybe by listing topics first, to be sure I don’t forget any. Then I can start on one thing [...]
Incinerator Blues, Part Three: Who Do You Trust?
By Donella Meadows
–September 17, 1987–
As I go back and forth from the pro- to the anti-incinerator side of the controversy in my valley, I can’t find any villains. What I find is capable, likeable folks on both sides, who can’t agree on where to put their garbage because they can’t agree on where to put their trust.
Al Haley the operations [...]
Incinerator Blues, Part Two: A Beginner’s Guide to Toxic Ash
By Donella Meadows
–September 10, 1987–
The 3200 tons of garbage on the barge that was rejected by 6 countries has finally found its final destination — an incinerator. Increasingly incinerators, sometimes called mass-burn plants, are becoming the solution to our garbage problem. A thousand of them are likely to be constructed in the next 10 years. The salesmen of the mass-burn [...]
Incinerator Blues, Part One: Do You Know Where Your Trash Is Tonight?
By Donella Meadows
–September 3, 1987–
About a month ago I got a mailing from a national environmental group, warning about the very incinerator to which my garbage wends its humble weekly way. It’s a brand-new, waste-to-energy plant in Claremont, New Hampshire, built and operated by Signal Environmental Systems.
“Watch this plant!” the flyer said. “This is the second incinerator in the USA [...]
