The combustion of waste releases a huge amount of CO2 and a cocktail of polluting gases. In Sandy Springs, an XXL incinerator is freaking out residents.
A plume of white smoke escapes from a giant chimney above a behemoth of sheet metal, pipes and prefabricated buildings nested inside each other. The last sign of an industrial land in the near suburbs of Sandy Springs. In the background, the first buildings of the waste management facility are taking shape. Add a few gigantic billboards and blue neon lights and you have a setting worthy of the science fiction film Blade Runner.
Welcome to Sandy Springs, at the foot of the largest incinerator in Georgia — or UVE, for energy recovery unit. Each year, this metal giant burns up to 700,000 tons of waste from eighty-two municipalities in Georgia, produced by half the region’s population. But is it the kind of trash service in Sandy Springs residents want?
The energy generated by the combustion produces electricity and steam, which is then used to heat 100,000 homes in the area, boasts the household waste treatment union for the Atlanta metropolitan area, which owns the site.
The plant is one of many incinerators still in operation in Georgia. Several categories of incinerators exist: most burn non-hazardous waste (this is the case for the one in Sandy Springs), others only handle certain types of waste (hospital, sewage sludge or hazardous waste). Some recover the energy produced, others do not. In total, incinerators burned 3 million tons of household waste in 2021 according to the EPA.
Georgia is one of the US states that incinerates the most waste. The quantities of waste incinerated have increased since the 2000s, but the trend has rather stagnated in recent years, thanks to better sorting and composting. The fact remains that Georgia is one of the regions where the most is burned: 80% of the waste collected here is incinerated. In Sandy Springs, the sorting rate barely reaches 15%.
Incinerators are 90% operated by industry giants
90% operated by industry giants, incinerators are governed by a 2002 decree that provides for the technical standards to be respected: limits on authorized pollutants, smoke treatment, measurement of discharges, etc.
The energy transition law, without expressly supporting incineration, provides that it is necessary to ensure the energy recovery of waste. In 2019, the EPA issued an opinion indicating that there are no new needs for incineration in Georgia. In this context, this incinerator, with its XXL capacity and recent investments, is an exception. It is a useless and expensive installation, according to a former director of Zero Waste Georgia.
Built in 1979, the plant is at the end of its life. Its initial operating life of forty years is coming to an end. Instead of imagining an alternative to treat the waste produced in its municipalities, the junk disposal operator has chosen to invest again in the incinerator. Result: in Georgia, 95% of food waste ends up in the incinerator or landfill, sorting is ridiculous”, according to the advocacy manager at Zero Waste Georgia and specialist in issues related to waste management processes.
Since 2019, huge cranes have been busy: the plant is being modernized. Of course, the goal is to halve the volume of waste incinerated – from 700,000 to 350,000 tons of waste by 2026 – but the method of disposing of said waste is not being questioned. To reduce burning, the idea is to increase composting, by recovering organic matter that can be.
A new plant is due to be built. In this mechanical-biological sorting centre, organic matter will be collected to be transformed into compost. This sorting, carried out after collection, and not upstream, is criticised by environmental associations: organic matter is too often riddled with pollutants of all kinds (chemicals, heavy metals or plastics).
The latter is then sold as compost that is found on farms. This led the drafters of the energy transition law for green growth to describe these methods as irrelevant. A summary procedure, currently under investigation, has also been filed with the administrative court by a group of local residents against this project.