US garbage incinerators are failing to eliminate ‘forever chemical’ air pollution, experts warn

The virtually indestructible Pfas waste puts largely low-income neighborhoods at risk, public health advocates say

The nation’s garbage incinerators are largely failing to eliminate Pfas “forever chemicals” air pollution, and are putting people in largely low-income neighborhoods at risk, public health advocates and independent experts warn.

The powerful waste management industry is increasingly pushing incinerators as a solution to virtually indestructible Pfas waste, and a new industry trade group report alleges Minnesota’s incinerators are reducing their forever chemical emissions by 99.6%. Other incinerator operators have made similar reduction claims .

The report also comes amid fights to shut down incinerators in Miami , Philadelphia and Baltimore , and a lawsuit filed against the Environmental Protection Agency over what it characterizes as a weak update to its emissions standards for the facilities, which do not include Pfas. Nearly 100 municipal or hazardous waste incinerators operate nationally, including seven in Minnesota.

The new Minnesota report is full of bad assumptions, incomplete data, misleading language, and fails to conduct proper testing, according to an analysis by the Zero Burn Coalition advocacy group and reviews by independent incineration experts.

Instead, advocates say, Minnesota’s facilities are probably poisoning the surrounding neighborhoods with Pfas and a cocktail of other dangerous pollutants that garbage incineration often emits.

The report “deceives the public into thinking [incineration] is safe”, said Nazir Khan, executive director of the Minnesota Environmental Justice Table.

“This trash becomes the problem of the poor and marginalized to deal with in their bodies,” he added.