Florida Republicans are joining forces, warning that Florida legislators are trying to push bills that would contribute $100 million a year to expand trash incinerators. These incinerators, they argue, are included in Florida’s most toxic polluters. State Senator Ben Albritton (R) and Florida Rep. Amber Mariano (R) have expressed their concern over this issue by introducing legislation. Critics are now directing comments to Florida Rep. Blaise Ingoglia (R), warning that responding to Florida's trash incinerators concerns should be a top priority in his campaign.
The aforementioned incinerators are reported to contribute 33% of the highly toxic mercury pollution that’s released in Florida. In turn, pundits argue that this contributes to Florida’s Department of Health issuing over 2,000 fish consumption advisories and warning that fish in all Florida counties are too toxic to eat.
Though mercury is a concern in the state, trash incinerators are reportedly “the most expensive and polluting way to make energy or to manage waste.”
Moreover, “for every 100 tons burned in an incinerator, incineration makes landfills more toxic by dumping highly concentrated toxic ash into the landfill instead of the less-toxic larger volume of unburned waste.”
Florida leads in incineration, and currently, the ten trash incinerators that are operating are located in Central and South Florida.
In response, Sen. Albritton’s Senate Bill 1764 has quickly cleared three committees while Rep. Mariano’s House Bill 1419 is headed to Rep. Ingoglia’s Commerce Committee.
In turn, supporters are calling for Ingoglia to endorse the bill, questioning whether Ingoglia is determined to uphold a “dying industry” and questioning if Ingoglia would support more environmental alternatives.
Detractors argue that landfills are a more environmental alternative, expressing that it would be less pollution while also cutting down on burning trash and dumping ash in the state. As reported by a 2017 life cycle analysis regarding landfills vs. incinerations, "On a majority of the 10 environmental measures evaluated, incineration turned out to be worse than landfilling, even counting the extra emissions from diesel trucks hauling waste further to reach landfills."
