Stiffer Curbs on Municipal Waste Incineration Urged : Environment: The EPA proposal is the first attempt to impose a nationwide standard. Critics call for more emphasis on recycling.

The Environmental Protection Agency proposed tighter pollution controls Thursday on municipal waste incinerators, including a requirement that at least one-fourth of all reusable garbage be recycled.

Although the EPA said that the tighter standards would curtail incinerator emissions by 90% within five years, the proposal was attacked immediately by environmentalists, who said that the agency should require greater recycling.

The proposal is the first attempt by the federal government to impose a nationwide standard on toxic chemical releases from garbage incineration plants, although many communities have similar curbs.

There are more than 450 garbage incinerators nationwide, with 150 expected to be built over the next five years as municipalities increasingly turn to burning garbage as landfill space becomes scarce.

“This proposal will assure that municipal waste incinerators employ the best demonstrated technology to protect public health and the environment by reducing air emissions and toxic ash,” said William Rosenberg, the assistant EPA administrator for air and radiation.

Rosenberg said that a final regulation is expected within a year. Federal regulations currently place restrictions only on dust emissions from the burning of garbage, although many states and localities also have toxic pollution controls.

The additional pollution control equipment was estimated to amount to an added cost of about $20 a year for every household served by a garbage incineration plant, the EPA officials said.

Many environmentalists have accused the EPA of putting too much emphasis on incineration in dealing with the mounting garbage problem and not giving enough attention to recycling. They argue that even with the tighter controls, some unhealthy levels of toxic air emissions will persist and the disposal of toxic ash will continue to pose a threat to ground water and soil when it is buried.

Arguing that as much as 80% of the garbage can be recycled, consumer activist Ralph Nader called the EPA’s 25% target a “token recycling effort” designed to “provide a cloak of environmental legitimacy for incineration programs.”

The EPA proposal would require incinerator operators to install scrubbers and other technology that would reduce emissions of toxic metals, such as lead, cadmium, mercury, arsenic and chromium by as much as 99%; organic chemicals, such as dioxins and furans, by 99%, and acid gases, such as sulfur dioxide and hydrogen chloride, by up to 95%.