The Tompkins County EMC has been working to strengthen the regulations in Tompkins County against residential waste burning. Residential open burning of waste is now the major source of dioxins, which are some of the most toxic substances known. The goal of the EMC activities is to promote clean waste disposal in Tompkins County and beyond.  Please see the Frequently Asked Questions (pdf) (doc), and read the information below for details.

Steady increases in our scientific and technological capabilities since the Environmental movement began decades ago have made it more affordable than ever to study and understand the impact we have on our environment. With much more data being collected now than in the past, it's clear we still have significant impacts on our surroundings despite our overall increased awareness of our environment.

While many hazards from the past still remain like lead, asbestos and underground spills, today we have an increased understanding of new environmental hazards to our health like flame retardants and the subject of this effort, dioxins. Dioxins are some of the most toxic substances known to science and they're showing up in dangerous levels in our environment quite simply because we've been putting them there. In the past factories were to blame, but the success of the environmental movement against factories has resulted in a situation where we now see homeowners themselves as the major source of dioxin-based pollution.

How? Where the burning of trash was once a relatively benign event, the increasingly diverse types of materials in our residential waste stream have created a scenario where homeowners can burn such items as plastics in inefficient, un-scrubbed fires that burn cool and actually serve as an excellent vehicle for creating these highly toxic dioxins. Bans on burning any residential waste have been pursued for years and have already been implemented in many US states. Because NY is not one of them, the EMC has been working towards a new, more strict set of regulations in Tompkins County against residential waste burning to send a message to our state government. In the Spring of 2005 efforts began to look at the existing Tompkins County Sanitary Code to identify new language that could be implemented towards this goal.

The Tompkins County Environmental Management Council understands that for some people backyard burning of residential waste through the practice of "open burning" is sometimes the only method that's affordable. That's why we've engaged the community in this dialogue about amending the Sanitary Code to strengthen restrictions on backyard burning while also paying careful attention to brainstorm, select and implement programs or policies than can support a transition to clean waste disposal in Tompkins County. So far the EMC, Board of Health, Division of Solid Waste, researchers, non-profits and even opposing advocacy agencies have all exchanged dialogue in an effort to identify the best ways to move forward.

Also in the Spring of 2005 the EMC hosted a public forum to collect feedback from the community. As chair of the EMC's Open Burning Committee I'm happy to report that the "If You're Smellin' it, You're Breathin' It!" public meeting held on May 19th was a success. In summary, the majority of the opinions expressed at the event favored and supported recent efforts to reduce emissions from Residential Open Burning of Household Waste. While most supported tougher rules, there were objections from some attendees that did well to identify the obstacles and potentially impractical aspects of an Open Burning Ban. The most common concern involved costs and low-income individuals.

Though not a complete collection of thoughts expressed at the event, the following items were some of the more noteworthy:

• Consider including "Fire Hazards" in education literature about Open Burning practices
• Social Services should fund or subsidize trash pickup for low-income households
• Subsidies could be time-limited and start could coincide with any changes to the law
• Many identified the inherent poor logic of attempting to quantify health effects vs. economic costs associated with trash removal
• Individuals that currently practice Open Burning should be polled to fully detail the problems and any potential solutions
• Education about Open Burning impacts should start with children and in our schools
• There are many examples that identify the EPA and DEC are in favor of reducing emissions from Open Burning
• Many would like to see expanded recycling and composting efforts within cost and technical reason