Garbage incinerators across the country are failing to eliminate forever chemicals, despite industry claims of near-total success, and the toxic residue is falling heaviest on low-income communities, public health experts warn.
The waste management industry has begun promoting incineration as an answer to the virtually indestructible PFAS compounds found in everything from nonstick cookware to stain-resistant clothing. A new report from Minnesota's industry trade group claims its incinerators reduce forever chemical emissions by 99.6 percent. Similar claims have come from incinerator operators in other states.
But independent experts and advocacy groups say the report is built on bad science and incomplete testing, deliberately designed to shield incinerators from stricter regulation. The analysis raises urgent questions about whether the technology actually works at all, and whether regulators have been deceived into believing a false solution.
Nearly 100 municipal or hazardous waste incinerators operate nationally, including seven in Minnesota. The findings come as communities in Miami, Philadelphia and Baltimore fight to shut down their own facilities, and as a lawsuit challenges the Environmental Protection Agency over weak emissions standards that do not address PFAS at all.
PFAS are a class of at least 16,000 compounds used to make products water, stain and grease resistant. They do not naturally break down in the environment, earning the nickname forever chemicals. The compounds have been linked to cancer, birth defects, weakened immunity, high cholesterol and kidney disease. When municipal waste containing these products reaches a landfill and is then incinerated, the chemicals are released into the air.
Here is the core problem: PFAS are engineered to resist heat and destruction. An attorney with the nonprofit Earthjustice who has litigated incinerator cases said he is not aware of any industrial-scale commercial incinerator that solves this problem.
The Minnesota Resources Recovery Association, the industry trade group that commissioned the report, claims its incinerators burn at or above 850 Celsius (1,562 Fahrenheit), hot enough to initiate or promote the degradation of PFAS. But a former DuPont PFAS scientist who now consults on incineration issues called this language misleading. Promoting degradation is not the same as total destruction, she argued. PFAS require much higher temperatures and must be completely mineralized, with proof provided that nothing remains.
The Minnesota report tested for only about 50 PFAS compounds when at least 16,000 exist and hundreds are in regular commercial use. Incineration often breaks PFAS into smaller but still-toxic byproducts that the testing either missed or could not measure. A 2023 investigation by the Guardian found that when academic experts conducted rigorous air testing near a factory, they detected PFAS markers up to 76 times higher than the limited tests that industry uses.
The EPA itself expressed doubt about incineration as a solution in 2024, writing that there are insufficient data available and low confidence in the reliability of this technology to control PFAS releases.
The Zero Burn Coalition, an advocacy group that analyzed the Minnesota report, found that health standards in place for some PFAS compounds are far too low. When EPA drinking water standards are converted to air exposure limits and applied to Minnesota, the measured levels in the air exceed safe standards by up to 17 times. The analysis also identified what it called a large hole in the toxicity assessment because of missing health information for 16 of the 22 PFAS found in incinerator emissions.
Nazir Khan, executive director of the Minnesota Environmental Justice Table, said the report deceives the public into thinking incineration is safe. He pointed to the geographic reality: the trash and its toxic consequences become the problem of poor and marginalized communities to deal with in their bodies.
The MRRA disputed Zero Burn's conclusions, saying the advocacy group's analysis does not prove that PFAS emissions are unsafe and that its mathematical extrapolations from drinking water standards do not constitute a proper risk assessment. The trade group also noted that measured stack levels do not exceed fence-line levels where people live.
Yet people living around these facilities are exposed to the chemicals, along with a cocktail of other dangerous pollutants released at high levels by incinerators. Minnesota state and local governments have not committed to addressing the issue or closing the facilities. Advocates expect the flawed industry report will be used to block stronger regulations and to resist calls for closure.
Doug Gurian-Sherman, a former EPA official and lead author of the Zero Burn analysis, called the Minnesota report part of a broader history of deception and attempts to mislead public and elected officials. He characterized it as a clear example of environmental injustice.
Author James Rodriguez: "The incinerator industry is marketing a technology that experts say doesn't work, in neighborhoods where residents have little power to resist."
Comments