As part of the 2023 Speaker Series, the Greenwich Sustainability Committee, in partnership with Waste Free Greenwich, will host “Waste Injustice: Impacts and Solutions” on Tuesday, October 24 at 1:00-2:30 pm at the Second Congregational Church chapel.
By Julie DesChamps, Waste Free Greenwich Founder and Chair & Greenwich Sustainability Committee Waste Reduction Sector Co-Chair
Where does our trash go after it’s tossed in the bin? For many Greenwich residents, it’s out of sight, out of mind. It is not widely known that the majority of the 74 million pounds of waste generated annually in our community is trucked to Peekskill, New York to be burned at the detriment of the environment, public health and our wallets.
Yet, for the Peekskill community, the impacts of our unsustainable waste management system are front and center. This environmental justice community bears the burden of our waste practices and consumer habits. Emissions from incineration pollute the environment, harming the health of residents.
Incineration results in pollution at each stage from the transportation of waste to the culmination of toxic air emissions, ash and other residues. Peekskill’s WinWaste incinerator is the largest source of air pollution in Westchester County, spewing excessive quantities of particulate matter, lead, mercury and carbon dioxide into the environment and exposing neighbors to these toxic air pollutants through inhalation or contaminated food and water.
The facility has substantially contributed to the alarmingly high incidences of asthma, infant mortality and other health problems suffered by residents, who can afford it least. Peekskill, which is predominately a community of color, has the second lowest median income in Westchester County, and 93% of its school district qualified for free and reduced lunch.
Greenwich needs to adopt alternatives to incineration now, not only to protect health of Peekskill residents but also to address a growing crisis in Connecticut. The waste management system in Connecticut is at a critical point. The state has too much trash and not enough capacity to dispose of it. With the closure of the Hartford MIRA facility last year, there are only four remaining incinerators in Connecticut. These aging facilities, which are expensive to maintain, risky to finance and costly to upgrade, are at or close to practical capacity.
Currently, about 40% of the total municipal solid waste in Connecticut cannot be managed by in-state disposal capacity. More than 860,000 tons of waste will be exported to out-of-state incinerators and landfills in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia. Communities will experience a spike in disposal costs. In fact, CT DEEP predicts an exponential increase, a quintupling of costs by 2050, which will strain municipal
budgets.
Although Greenwich’s waste is already exported to New York, the town is not immune to this crisis. When the Westchester incinerator is shuttered in 2029, it will be the oldest incinerator in the nation at 45 years old, and there are sure to be disruptions and breakdowns in the interim which will affect service and tipping fees. Despite our efforts to prevent and divert waste and to increase education about reduction and recycling, much more needs to be done to create a more sustainable waste management system to mitigate toxic pollution, environmental injustices and health impacts and strengthen our fiscal resiliency in the face of rising costs.
As part of the 2023 Speaker Series, the Greenwich Sustainability Committee (GSC), in partnership with Waste Free Greenwich, will host “Waste Injustice: Impacts and Solutions” on Tuesday, October 24 at 1:00-2:30 pm at the Second Congregational Church chapel.
The event will feature presentations by Dr. Courtney Williams, Co-Founder of Westchester Alliance for Sustainable Solutions (WASS) and Kevin Budris, Advocacy Director at Just Zero. Panelists will explore the effects of waste management practices and policies in Greenwich and across our state and advocate for solutions to address
Connecticut’s waste crisis and to reduce environmental impacts and the burden on low-income populations and communities of color.
Williams, a Peekskill resident who lives less than a mile from the Westchester incinerator, will share her perspective as a cancer researcher and public health advocate. She will examine the consequences of toxic emissions from the incinerator and other polluting industries on the citizens of Peekskill and share her fight to make the incinerator obsolete and WASS’s endeavors to advance alternative strategies.
Budris will discuss his work as a lawyer and advocate at Just Zero, promoting sustainable methods of waste diversion. He works alongside communities, policy makers, scientists, educators and others to implement just and equitable solutions and will demonstrate how Greenwich and other communities can “redesign, reuse, divert, and compost” their way to a more sustainable future.
For more information, view the full invitation here, or to RSVP, email Kim Gregory at [email protected].
As part of the 2023 Speaker Series, the Greenwich Sustainability Committee, in partnership with Waste Free Greenwich, will host “Waste Injustice: Impacts and Solutions” on Tuesday, October 24 at 1:00-2:30 pm at the Second Congregational Church chapel.