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Use of Garbage Incinerators in Chicago

The use of incinerators in the Chicago area was invigorated by the need to develop clean alternative energy sources and to rid the city of accumulating garbage, following a nationwide trash crisis in the late 1960s. Several incinerators that were built in Chicago were immediately criticized for perceived discriminatory practices because the incinerators were located in the vicinity of poor neighborhoods. After nearly three decades of protests and court battles, most garbage incinerators were shut down by 1998.

  1. Retail Rate Law

    • In 1988 the Retail Rate Law was passed in Illinois; the law offered no-interest loans to incinerator operators to produce energy that would be sold to utility companies and offered discounted energy costs to consumers. This legislation spawned waste-to-energy incinerators in the Chicago area. A July 1996 study published by the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago examined the circumstances that led to the enactment of the law and the forces behind its eventual repeal in 1996.

    The Northwest Incinerator

    • Laurie Palmer, writing in the September 2006 issue of "Solidarities," described the efforts of community groups to shut down the Northwest incinerator located on Kildare Avenue in Chicago. Palmer states that the incinerator was built in 1971 to rid the city of trash destined for landfills and to generate energy. The campaign to have the facility built promised that the incinerator would reduce the city's trash by up to 90 percent and would supply steam to the Brach's candy factory nearby. Palmer states that by the early 1990s, the incinerator was releasing between 5 and 17 pounds of lead every hour in neighborhoods bordering the area. After years of litigation and fines from the Environmental Protection Agency, the incinerator was finally decommissioned in 1993.

    Hospital Incinerators

    • Landfills in and around Chicago do not accept hazardous materials from hospitals, which leaves the facilities with limited disposal methods, such as incineration. A study from the University of Illinois at Chicago investigated the amount and variety of pathogenic bacteria from a local hospital incinerator. The authors stated that the highest concentrations of airborne bacteria were detected within 40 feet of the incinerator door and then decreased as the distance from the incinerator increased. The study found that pathogenic bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus, were detected in air samples from locations throughout the hospital; the bacteria emanated from a repackaging area used for the hospital incinerator. These bacteria were able to travel throughout the hospital because the repackaging area shared a ventilation system with other parts of the hospital.

    Toxicity from Incinerators

    • A January 1992 study published in "Science of the Total Environment" investigated the toxicity of ash from a municipal solid waste incinerator in Chicago. The authors evaluated the ash for its mutagenicity, or the ability to induce DNA damage, on strains of bacteria by extracting organic material with either water or acid. The researchers reported that they could not find direct mutagens, but acid-extracted material was found to be toxic to the bacterial strains. The study also determined that organic material extracted with water from the ash was neither toxic nor mutagenic.

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