Back in 1985, Ronald Reagan began his second term as president, Microsoft rolled out the first version of Windows and the sci-fi film “Back to the Future” opened in theaters.

Also debuting that year: Baltimore’s polluting BRESCO trash incinerator.

Today, four decades later, the garbage-burning facility near I-95 would have been phased out – if advocates had their way.

After outgoing Mayor Jack Young disappointed residents in 2020 by extending the city’s contract with BRESCO for another 10 years (and incoming Mayor Brandon Scott went along with him), Scott vowed that would never happen again.

But I fear we are on the path that will lock us into continued use of this particulate-belching behemoth.

We’ve got to work harder to get back to the cleaner, greener future we were promised years ago by committing to a sustainable “zero waste” approach to managing our garbage.

This month marks the 40th anniversary of what is generally referred to as BRESCO, which stands for Baltimore Refuse Energy Systems Company. (The incinerator is currently operated by New Hampshire-based WIN Waste Innovations, commonly known as Wheelabrator.)

It’s a sad occasion, really, because depending on BRESCO has deprived the city of much-needed economic opportunities.

According to Circular Charlotte, a study of that city’s potential to go zero waste, for every 10,000 tons of waste incinerated, you create one job. BRESCO burns around 700,000 tons annually and, appropriately, has about 70 employees (none of whom live in nearby Westport).

Landfilling waste produces up to six jobs per 10,000 tons of waste, while recycling creates about 36 jobs per 10,000 tons of waste.

It is the reuse and re-manufacturing of waste materials that yields the greatest benefits – a whopping 300 jobs per 10,000 tons of waste.

The EPA recognizes that at least 75% of the materials we dispose of are reusable, recyclable or compostable. But since 1985, we have instead chosen to feed the beast.

BRESCO cannot function effectively without massive amounts of trash, making incineration and true waste diversion basically incompatible. So it’s no wonder that Baltimore’s residential recycling rate is only about 17% – considerably lower than the 75% diversion rate EPA says is achievable.

A Better Way

The logical response to this is “what do we do instead?”

Currently, the city lacks a lot of zero waste infrastructure. It doesn’t have its own material recycling facility (MRF) or any large composting operations.

More disturbingly, the city has committed over $100 million to expand the Quarantine Road Landfill, which was created in 1986 as a primary disposal site for BRESCO’s toxic ash. (Half the weight of what’s delivered there is incinerator ash.)

Instead of this approach, you could take some of those millions and build:

• A 425,000-ton recycling facility, which is approximately how much waste is sent to BRESCO from public and private city sources annually.

• And a 180,000-ton composting facility, approximately how much organic material is delivered to the incinerator from Baltimore annually.

This would provide the city with plenty of capacity to manage its waste instead of burning it.

We could also give every single-family residence an organics disposal bin and allocate at least $2 million to robust education on why the city needs to move towards zero waste.

And we’d still have money left over for logistics and any missing components, including support for multifamily homes.

Another benefit: Many recyclable materials have secondary-market value, like aluminum ($1,210 a ton in 2024) or white HDPE plastic ($610 a ton in 2024).

Instead of the city sending recyclables to Howard County and paying for a site to handle them, it could be making money on many of these recyclables and fostering the development of businesses who can reuse them.

This isn’t just coming from a leftist curmudgeon’s perspective. Even the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation supports the transition toward zero waste.

Its Beyond 34 report, with sponsorship from Walmart, Target, Dow Chemical and others, states that a national waste diversion rate of 70% would unlock $4.5 trillion to the national economy by 2030 and could be “the biggest economic evolution of our country’s history.”

An Uncomfortable Insight

So why aren’t we doing this?

It’s a question I ask myself pretty much every day. And while I have shared one reason (you must feed the beast), I think it goes a bit deeper than that and becomes more uncomfortable.

I believe we have resigned ourselves, both consciously and not, to the idea that Baltimore is too “different” – that is, too poor and too Black – to become a leader in sustainability. I’ve heard too many variations of this theme too many times.

Have we resigned ourselves to the idea that Baltimore is too “different” – that is, too poor and too Black – to become a leader in sustainability?

The Department of Public Works ran a pilot program in Bel Air-Edison and Mondawmin that paired large green trash cans with inadequately sized yellow recycling bins. The agency also provided a bit of education on what was or wasn’t recyclable.

Lo and behold, recycling rates went up in these communities. But instead of providing both free trash cans and recycling bins, the city opted for just the green trash cans and kept charging $12 for the recycling cans – plus $3 for a lid – for years.

This left people with a disjointed use-what-you-can approach for their recyclables.

Meanwhile in Oakland, California, monthly pickup rates are based on the size of the trash can. You can get large recycling bins without paying more. Why can’t Baltimore do something similar?

Or we could approach things like Memphis did.

The city recognized that their recycling totals were much lower than their potential and low-participating communities needed more direct outreach. Memphis allocated its resources and provided residents with recycling carts the size of their trash carts. The city’s daily pickup totals nearly tripled.

Every Community Wants This

From 2014 to 2020, the grassroots movement to get rid of BRESCO was a force to be reckoned with. Getting resolutions and ordinances approved by the City Council, it seemed poised to win cancellation of the largest incinerator in the country.

But after a laughable decision regarding the Baltimore Clean Air Act (with the judge ruling that the city cannot have stricter air standards than the state, even though the state’s Clean Air Act says the exact opposite), Mayor Young settled with the company and agreed to another 10-year contract. That guaranteed the city would be sending waste to BRESCO until 2031.

What was Young afraid of? The effort to expand the landfill was underway, and there would have been time to use the existing Quarantine Road cell as a primary disposal site, while zero waste infrastructure could come online.

Why decide that Baltimore’s communities – especially Westport, Cherry Hill and other disinvested communities of color – should suffer another decade of toxic emissions and weird smells?

Why decide that Westport, Cherry Hill and other disinvested communities of color should suffer another decade of toxic emissions?

Every community cares about themselves, even when they may be suffering from decades of institutional neglect. Baltimoreans want clean air, clean water, clean streets.

Neighborhoods across the city organize cleanups with or without the city’s help. People report illegal dumping of tires and construction debris – materials that could be reused and produce jobs when managed properly.

My former organization ran three recycling projects across South Baltimore a few years ago.

We provided education on the incinerator, hired community residents to collect data, and distributed large recycling bins. Recycling rates ranged from 25% in the first program to 43% in the third and final pilot, or nearly triple the city’s residential rate at that time.

If we care about reducing poverty, we need to use every tool possible to lift up families. It is poverty that leads to desperation that leads to crime – not the other way around. A zero waste economy significantly addresses the environmental and socioeconomic problems we have tried to address for decades.

Baltimore may be “different,” but for once it deserves better. Which means we cannot wait until 2031, when the current BRESCO contract ends, to take action.

– Dante Davidson-Swinton is executive director of the nonprofit zero waste education group Our Zero Waste Future. Reach him at ourzwf@gmail.com.