“Baltimore Must Throw Out Incineration”

Baltimore’s trash incinerator(s) have for many years been the paramount polluter of our air. Ownership has changed but the incineration industry has not; it profits at the expense of residents it claims to serve. At what point does bending truth become flat out lying? Impartial scientists know that among all trash disposal industries (and among all power generation industries) incineration pollutes the most, generates the least, and employs the least. Trash is worth more when recycled so by incinerating, larger society actually pays to increase the toxicity of its environment and cost of its medicine. That is neither environmentally, economically, nor socially sustainable. No more – Baltimore’s future in waste reduction, repair, reuse, and recycling or RRRR (that includes composting) begins now!

Kevin Kriescher (MS Physics) has held sundry academic roles (adjunct professor, college tutor, textbook editor, online K-12 math teacher, high school track/field coach, etc.) but his real calling – the one with no paycheck – is environmental conservation. He has lived in Baltimore 14 years and currently serves the MD Chapter of the Sierra Club as executive committee member for the Greater Baltimore Group. His focus within the group is pollution – one of humanity’s biggest yet somehow most persistently ignored crises.