Germany - dioxins from waste incineration consigned to history

Statements have been made by the German Federal Government that dioxins from waste incinceration in Germany have been rendered negligible by advances in legal and technical controls. The following is from a September 2005 report from the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety.

Dioxin from waste incineration plants reduced to one thousandth Emissions of toxic contaminants from waste incineration have been drastically reduced since 1990. Total dioxin emissions from all 66 waste incineration plants in Germany has dropped to approx. one thousandth as a consequence of the installation of filter units stipulated by statutory law: from 400 grams to less than 0.5 grams.

In other industries, too, there have been marked declines in dioxin emissions: in metal extraction and processing, for instance, from 740 to 40 grams ~ approx. one twentieth. The decline, however, has nowhere been as drastic as in the incineration of household waste. The consequence is that whereas in 1990 one third of all dioxin emissions in Germany came from waste incineration plants, for the year 2000 the figure was less than 1%.

Chimneys and tiled stoves in private households alone discharge approximately twenty times more dioxin into the environment than waste incineration plants. This is also evident from the fact that in winter airborne dioxin loads are up to five times higher than in summer when heating systems are out of operation. The most extensive dioxin emissions, however, are attributable to metal extraction and processing.

Without waste incineration plants, there would be more toxicants in the air

Dioxins are formed in the smoke gases of fires; it is only in very small proportions that they occur in waste from the very beginning. Arsenic, cadmium, nickel, and other cancerogenic toxic heavy metals, on the other hand, enter waste incineration plants together with waste. In order to prevent them from leaving any waste incineration plant via its chimney, under the 17th Ordinance on the Implementation of the Federal Immission Control Act ("17th BImSchV") expensive filtering devices were installed by 1996. The result: prior to 1990, contaminants of a toxicity comparable to that of 188 tonnes of arsenic were distributed into the air; today, at least 3 tonnes are extracted from the air. Admittedly, this is an idea that needs some getting used to. But that credit is a result of the power and heat generation produced by the incineration of household waste4. If that energy were generated using traditional power stations, there would be three more tonnes of toxicant in the air.

The same is true for particulate matter.

Prior to 1990, all waste incineration plants taken together were still emitting 25,000 tonnes of dust (or a maximum of 30 milligrams per cubic metre [mg/m3] of exhaust air). In 2001, that figure dropped to less than 3,000 tonnes. At present, waste incineration plants may emit a maximum concentration of 10 mg/m3 of dust in their flue gas; in practice, however, that figure is usually approx. 1 mg/m3. If we include in the calculation avoided emissions of particulate matter by traditional power stations, the emissions prevented will total approx. 5,000 tonnes5. In any event, compared with the 171,0006 tonnes of fine dust emitted annually in Germany, waste incineration plants are of no consequence.

This report Waste incineration ~ a potential danger? bidding farewell to dioxin spouting (0.1 MB) is available from the German Ministry‘‘s website at:

http://www.bmu.de/files/pdfs/allgemein/application/pdf/muellverbrennung_dioxin_en.pdf
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