There they go again: Despite grassroots victories over the last two decades to stop new waste incinerators, and steady progress toward Zero Waste by communities from coast to coast, the industry is once more trying to convince a gullible mainstream news media that incinerators are making a comeback.

 On Jan. 10, under the headline “Garbage Incineration Makes Comeback, Kindling Both Garbage and Debate,”The New York Times ran a package of pieces with a split personality. On the one hand, there was a terrific video of Free Your Voice and United Workers activists fighting an incinerator proposal in an African-American neighborhood in Baltimore that already hosts more than its share of toxic facilities. On the other hand, the article itself focused on the Baltimore proposal and exactly one incinerator under construction – in West Palm Beach, Fla. – as evidence of a resurgence. Yet four incinerators have been shuttered in recent years.

What’s worse, the article parroted the incinerator industry’s favorite – and misleading – pitch, that the primary goal of burning garbage is… READ MORE