• From my visit to the site of George Floyd’s murder turned memorial. This statue has remained at the site, still standing today
• One of many works of art at the site done by a grieving community, surrounded by flowers, gifts, and messages of love and despair
Guest blog by Savannah Kjaer
I am writing to you from Minneapolis, in America. A year ago, I expect most Australians would have never recognized the name. Since May, however, my city has garnered international attention, even infamy.
Minneapolis was the site of George Floyd’s murder by local police, and the massive protests which followed. The scene of this crime, and now memorial site, is only a few miles from my home. The protests which resulted, though, have sparked a global conversation about racial justice.
I tell you this information as it turns out to be vital to the original topic of this post, waste.
At first, Michael asked me to write about how waste is managed where I live, tracking the pollution it creates.
I began with just that. I currently live in an apartment with two roommates. Weighing our collective trash, we generate about 0.54 kg (1.2 lbs) of waste per day, or 0.18kg (0.4lbs) per person. Most of our waste is from the kitchen, specifically food packaging. While I acknowledge there are a number of ways we could work to bring this number down, I want to focus on the overall waste system.
• “Brrrrr. It gets cold here in Minneapolis”. Savannah Kjaer
• Map of the United States showing in red the state of Minnesota
Our garbage’s journey starts with a trip to the basement. Here, a communal dump for our building is set up. Looking at this overflowing bin, produced by just one building, it’s hard to imagine the amount of trash produced by this whole city, state, the world each and every day. Now, I assumed our trash would be sent to a landfill somewhere far outside the city. However, my county handles trash quite differently.
• A microcosm of our larger trash problem, the overflowing dumpster and recycling for my apartment building
In this county, our trash isn’t buried. Instead, it’s burned. Using trash as an alternative source of fuel is not a new idea. Trash collecting in landfills creates a number of well-recorded problems. Environmentally, it can pollute groundwater through leaching and releases greenhouse gases and other air pollutants. The trash itself also takes up an increasing amount of space. Burning trash solves some of these issues. It reduces the need for landfills, and perhaps its biggest perk, it creates energy in the process, reducing the need to burn fossil fuels.
However, when this method is scaled up, burning over a 1.25 MILLION people’s trash, this will obviously exacerbate any problems with this system. The incinerator, the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center (HERC), currently burns 907 metric tons (1000 US tons) of trash per day. This process produces toxic ash, which still needs to be disposed of. This ash presents many of the same pollution issues as the trash it originated from. Perhaps the biggest concern with incinerators is the air pollution they inevitably release. Besides hazardous metals (including arsenic, chromium, and nickel), these incinerators also produce fine particulate matter, which is linked to numerous respiratory conditions.
• The mountain of garbage to be burned, some clearly recyclable, piling up within the HERC
With all this in mind, in 1987 the county decided to build the HERC in the largest predominantly black neighborhood in the city. The incinerator is neighbors with a homeless shelter, and a 98% black school. Residents frequently complain of the smell and smog released into the area. This neighborhood now suffers the highest rate of asthma in the state. Respiratory conditions are of particular concern with the coronavirus, which hospitalizes black residents at a rate 3.5x higher than white residents of the city.
• The percent minority of each neighborhood within the county, from 3.3% to 92.4%, with the red dot showing where the HERC is. Looking at the data, the city is clearly segregated, with people of color concentrated in the inner city, along with the majority of pollution
The community has spoken out against the incinerator many times, and even joined forces with local environmental groups to combat its expansion. In 2014, they successfully lobbied to prohibit the incinerator from expanding its capacity. However, despite all the local opposition, there have been no reductions in its use since its opening. The map below show how the pollution is produced within residential areas.
This is yet another example of a seemingly progressive city ignoring the outcries of its marginalized members. While Minneapolis sparked a movement for racial justice that spanned the globe, here at home we have failed to address even basic structural inequalities, let alone this rampant environmental racism.
Burning garbage is not the sustainable solution it’s cracked up to be. For one, as long as the city continues to sell the electricity from the plant, this actually creates an economic incentive to increase waste. In fact, currently the energy generated by the plant counts as “renewable”, discouraging investment into real green solutions.
• On the right, the linear economy we use now, vs the possible circular economy we could have. Rather than constantly producing and accumulating food waste, we could produce only what we need, and repurpose our scraps
While the incinerators have a number of problems, surely they’re better than the alternative, continuing to accumulate trash? I’d say neither. it is time to move away from either of these ‘solutions’ to our waste problem. Pollution needs to be stopped at the source, through reusing and recycling. The energy, resources, and garbage that are saved by simply using less will reduce the negative impacts of either process.
In our current linear economy, there will always be new waste generated. We need to invest in reusables, moving away from our obsession with single-use products. Increasing the recycling rates would also be a great alternative, reducing the need for more raw materials to be manufactured, and reducing the quantity of waste to be disposed. Not only does our environment depend on it, our neighbors do too.
Savannah Kjaer
Savannah’s update to this blog with additional information is here.