Stop Endangering our Families’ Health and Contributing to Global Warming
Montgomery County sends over 530,000 tons of trash per year to the Covanta/ReWorld incinerator in Dickerson that releases harmful pollutants – lead, mercury, dioxins. Then we send over 125,000 tons of toxic ash to densely populated community in Virginia.
The County’s Department of Health and Human Services found significantly higher levels of chronic lower respiratory disease and cancer among the population around the incinerator.
What can you do?
Let your councilmember know you want the incinerator closed! They must not wait with closing the incinerator until all Zero Waste strategies are fully implemented as the County Executive is now proposing. Close the incinerator and work on zero waste strategies at the same time! It’s time to stop putting our families at risk and escalating climate change.
First, find your councilmember and their email address at www.montgomerycountymd.gov/council/members/
Next, call or email your councilmember to express your concerns now! See sample letter here!
Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services conducted a Community Health Needs Assessment in 2023 that lists the incinerator in Dickerson as an environmental hazard and points out the health concerns over the emission of pollutants from the incinerator.
Now it’s time to act!
We must stop spending millions to burn and destroy material which leads to more resource extraction, more pollution and increased morbidity and mortality in our community.
- Incinerators are harmful to people’s health. Studies have found increased cancers and incidences of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases in communities around incinerators, (including here in Montgomery County), and increased dioxins in the blood of incinerator workers.
- Incineration is worse than landfilling – even for the climate. Incinerators pump carbon dioxide into the atmosphere; Montgomery County’s incinerator is the single biggest stationary source of carbon emissions in the County (630 MTCO2e per year). Landfills emit methane which is a potent greenhouse gas, but modern landfills capture 60-75% of their emissions so even with organic matter they are less polluting than our incinerator. Furthermore, methane can be avoided by composting organics like food scraps and yard waste.
- Montgomery County’s incinerator does not replace the need for a landfill; we send over 125,000 tons of toxic ash every year to a landfill in a densely populated community in Virginia.
- Trash incineration is not renewable energy. Burning trash destroys materials, encourages the consumption of resources, and discourages recycling.
- Burning trash is more polluting to air than burning coal. Shamefully, our County counts it as renewable energy thus displacing the production of wind or solar energy. Our incinerator releases 28 times as much dioxin, 6.2 times as much lead, 5.2 times as much mercury, 3.3 times as much nitrogen oxides (NOx), and 65% more carbon dioxide (CO2) than coal for the same amount of energy.
- Finally, from a cost perspective, if we look at tipping fees, plus monetized environmental and health impacts, burning our trash in Dickerson is 151- 394% more expensive than landfilling in an out-of-state facility even if we ship via diesel truck. Based on a full life-cycle analysis, the per ton cost for incineration is $258 versus $52-$103 for landfilling (see MEBCalc study done for Montgomery County).
More information about the incineration in Montgomery County – see our Frequently Asked Questions.
Just because Montgomery County’s incinerator is permitted and allowed to emit pollutants into the air, doesn’t make it safe for people and food grown nearby. County Executive Elrich must honor his commitment to close the incinerator when the Covanta contract ends in April 2026 and not wait until all other zero waste strategies have been fully implemented. As long as we continue to burn trash, we continue to poison our citizens. We must stop burning, start landfilling and in parallel develop robust zero-waste programs that maximize waste reduction, reuse and recycling.
Join us and others advocating to DO THE LEAST HARM NOW and work for a cleaner, healthier future free of hazardous incineration!
Learn more about Zero Waste at zerowasteusa.org
Join our advocacy group Zero Waste Montgomery County by emailing info@zwmc.org
Sign up for our updates at zwmc.org/contact/