A recent email is the perfect counter to the recently approved lifting of the incinerator moratorium by the Massachusetts DEP. Here is the email sent to me by reader MaryA.

Greetings supporters of a Zero Waste
Future,

Eco-Cycle has sponsored and co-authored a
new study which we think you will find interesting and useful in
your work. We titled it:“What
is the best disposal option for the “Leftovers” on the way to
Zero Waste?

Waste incineration companies are
increasingly promoting the belief that after maximizing recycling,
composting, and reuse the best thing a community can do with any
leftover waste that may still remain is to create energy with it.
But a new lifecycle analysis report, which compares the
environmental impacts of the three most common waste disposal
methods used globally, finds that the best approach to protecting
the public health and the environment isn’t mass burn
waste-to-energy, and it isn’t landfill gas-to-energy. The report
found that, after aggressive community-wide recycling, reuse and
composting, the most environmentally-sound disposal option for the
remaining materials was a third option: Materials Recovery,
Biological Treatment (MRBT). MRBT is a variation of theMBT systems used across Europe, but we’ve put a new
twist on it to recover even more resources and realize more
environmental benefits. (see media alert below for more detail)

According to Joan Marc Simon, Founder of
Zero Waste Europe,“This
report is exactly what we need at the right time to help guide the
debate on what to do with residuals once we reach high separate
collection rates. Europe has over-invested in waste incineration
and needs solutions that deliver environmental safety while still
focusing on increasing recycling and reducing material
consumption.”

Pleasesign up for a webinar(spots are limited)with the report authors Dr. Jeffrey Morris, Dr. Enzo
Favoino, Kate Bailey and myself, on either May 23^rdor May 30^th at www.ecocycle.org/specialreports/leftovers to learn more about the benefits of MRBT and what this
means for communities trying to reach Zero Waste. Find the full
report and more information at www.ecocycle.org/specialreports/leftovers.

We look forward to furthering this
discussion with you,

Eric Lombardi

Executive DirectorEco-Cycle, Inc.
| Boulder, CO USA 303.444.6634

PRESS RELEASE

New Study Finds
Waste Incineration is NOT the Best Disposal Option

for the
“Leftovers” That May Remain After Aggressive Source-Separated
Recycling and Composting

Boulder, CO (May 2) Waste incineration companies are
increasingly promoting the belief that after maximizing recycling,
reuse and composting, the best thing a community can do with
leftover waste is to create energy with it. But a new lifecycle
analysis report, which compares the environmental impacts of the
three most common disposal methods used globally, finds thatthe best approach to
protecting the public health and the environment isn’t mass burn
waste-to-energy, and it isn’t landfill gas-to-energy. The report
found that, after aggressive community-wide recycling, reuse and
composting, the most environmentally-sound disposal option for
any waste that may still remain is a third option: Materials
Recovery, Biological Treatment (MRBT).The full report,
“What is the best disposal option for the ‘Leftovers’ on the way
to Zero Waste?” is available at http://www.ecocycle.org/specialreports/leftovers.

Material Recovery, Biological Treatment is a process
to “pre-treat” mixed waste before landfilling in order to recover
even more dry materials for recycling and minimize greenhouse gas
and other emissions caused by landfilling by stabilizing the
organic fraction with a composting-like process. Very similar to
the MBT systems used widely in Europe, thegoal of MRBT is to
capture any remaining recyclables and then create inert residuals
that will produce little to no landfill gas when buried. The
system can alsoclassify non-recyclable
dry items for the purpose of identifying industrial design change
opportunities, which helps to drive further waste reduction.

This reportemphasizesthat source separation for
recycling and composting is still the best environmental option
for managing all discards and should be the focus of community
efforts. However, “on the way to Zero Waste” there is still the
need to reduce the negative impacts of disposal and minimize the
need to invest in new disposal facilities. Communities should look
beyond the two traditional options—burying and burning—toward
building MRBT systems that have the lowest overall environmental
impact of the technologies commercially available today.

Using a tool developed by economist Dr. Jeffrey
Morris called MEBCalc^TM, or Measuring Environmental
Benefits Calculator, the study compared the three disposal
strategies—MRBT, mass burn waste-to-energy and landfill
gas-to-energy—across seven environmental categories, including
climate change, water pollution, air pollution and human health
impacts. The MRBT system was shown to be the best choice for a
community to dispose of its leftovers because it recovers the
greatest amount of additional recyclables, stabilizes the organic
fraction of the residuals, reduces the amount of material to be
disposed of in a landfill, and minimizes the negative
environmental and public health impacts of landfilling leftovers
compared to the other disposal alternatives, landfill
gas-to-energy or mass-burn waste-to-energy.“MRBT is not a
replacement or substitution for source separation, but it is a
tool for helping communities reduce the environmental impacts of
managing their leftovers as they progress on their way to Zero
Waste,”says Eric
Lombardi, the Executive Director of Eco-Cycle and sponsor of the
study.

When utilized in a community with successful
recycling and composting programs, MRBT has further benefits
beyond its lower environmental impacts. Because the pre-treatment
process includes additional sorting and recovery of recyclable dry
materials, MRBT can help support very high levels of landfill
diversion. The study modeled an 87% diversion rate for the city of
Seattle, Washington based on 71% diversion from current
source-separated recycling efforts and an additional 16% from the
MRBT process, including increased recovery of recyclables and the
weight reduction of the organic materials from moisture
evaporation and biogenic carbon conversion to carbon dioxide.

MRBT infrastructure is also flexible and
dual-purposed, able to handle both mixed waste and
source-separated recyclables and organics. This means a community
is not tied to feeding the facility a continuous flow of mixed
waste over the next several decades and is not investing in a
future of ever-more waste. Rather, as a community’s Zero Waste
efforts improve, the MRBT model can adjust to a declining volume
of leftover waste and support the growth of source separated
collection systems. In addition, MRBT infrastructure can be built
and operational on a shorter time scale than landfills and
incinerators, and can be modular in size to help communities
manage their leftover waste more locally.

According to Joan Marc Simon, Founder of Zero Waste
Europe,“This report
is exactly what we need at the right time to help guide the
debate on what to do with residuals once we reach high separate
collection rates. Europe has over-invested in waste incineration
and needs solutions that deliver environmental safety while
still focusing on increasing recycling and reducing material
consumption.”

The full report, “What is the best disposal option
for the ‘Leftovers’ on the way to Zero Waste?” is available at www.ecocycle.org/specialreports/leftovers.
The authors will hold two webinars to explain the results and
methodology of the study on Thursday May 23^rdand Thursday May 30^th.
Sign up at www.ecocycle.org/specialreports/leftovers.

The report was an international effort authored by
Dr. Jeffrey Morris,an economist and
life-cycle assessment expert with Sound Resource Management Group
based in Olympia, Washington; Dr. Enzo Favoino, Senior Researcher
at Scuola Agraria del Parco di Monza in Milan, Italy; Eric
Lombardi, Executive Director of Eco-Cycle, a Zero Waste social
enterprise based in Boulder, Colorado; and Kate Bailey, Senior
Analyst for Eco-Cycle.