By Valerie Volcovici
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Environmental groups on Monday petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to require companies to disclose the chemicals discharged from waste incinerators and plants that claim to recycle plastic waste into fuel.
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and the Energy Justice Network filed the petition with the agency because the toxic chemical emissions from around 400 incinerators, gasification and pyrolysis, or “advanced recycling,” facilities are not required to be reported to the Toxics Release Inventory.
The TRI was created as part of the 1986 Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act and currently contains information on 770 chemicals from different industries to provide local communities with information about toxic chemical releases and waste management activities.
“Waste incinerators are typically among the largest industrial air polluters in their cities and counties, yet this info is invisible in this popular disclosure tool,” said Mike Ewall, executive director of the Energy Justice Network, adding that minority and low-income communities are most at risk.
The groups said that they are concerned that the ash generated after incinerators burn solid and industrial waste contains undisclosed toxic chemicals and heavy metals like mercury and lead and ends up placed on top of landfills, which get can blow into local communities.
The groups said the agency did not respond to a letter they sent last October, raising concerns about the health impacts of incineration.
The EPA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The petition also asks the agency to include discharges from advanced recycling plants, which are classified as incinerators, in the TRI. Advanced recycling is an umbrella term for processes that use heat or chemicals to turn plastic waste into fuel or reclaimed resin to make new plastic. These plants, backed by major oil and petrochemical companies, claim to turn plastic waste to a “clean” fuel.
(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
